FOCUS is designed to work in Google’s Chrome web browser, while it usually works in other browsers like Apple’s Safari or Mozilla’s Firefox, it will not work in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Note: Students must log into Focus using their own Focus account, if they login using their parent’s Focus Parent Portal account they will not see the links to submit assignments.
Student Portal Desktop When you first log into the FOCUS Student Portal, you will be greeted by the Student Portal Desktop. This screen has 3 major components, Alerts, Messages, and Featured Programs.
Alerts are messages indicating that there has been a change to your record in FOCUS. Typically these changes are related to attendance or discipline. The alerts field also lists your schedule. The schedule will display the course information and teacher’s name as well as your up to the minute grade in the course. Clicking on the grade will allow you to see the gradebook. Clicking the Course Information will link to the teacher’s course page if they are maintaining their page within Focus, if the teacher is not using Focus to maintain a course page for that class the Course Information will link to the gradebook. If you are enrolled at more than one school in the district (for example a traditional High School in addition to Clay Virtual Academy where you are taking one or two online courses) you may need to select the specific school you are looking for from a drop down menu in the top right of your Focus screen.
Messages are notifications from school board personnel that may relate to school or notifications relating to the function of the Student Portal application.
Student Portal Menus At the top of the Student Portal you have a menu to help you navigate the many features available to you.
Absences The Absences program will show a period by period accounting of all of the your absences for the year along with a key explaining all attendance codes and listing a total for each type of absence.
Focus Messenger Focus Messenger is now available in the Student, Parent, and Staff Focus platforms. This feature allows quick communication between staff, students, and parents. Note: Parents and students can only message teachers, not other students or parents.
Accessing the Focus Messenger and Sending Messages
Login to Focus.
Click the Messenger link in the bottom right hand corner of your focus screen.
Select teacher by clicking the link with the magnifying glass icon.
Begin typing the name of the teacher you would like to message.
Click on the name of the teacher you would like to message.
Type your message in the message window that appears. Notice the elements you can add to your message at the bottom of the message window (bold, italics, emojis).
Press Enter to send the message.
Submitting Assignments Electronically A driving force behind our transition from Blackboard was creating a way for students to digitally submit assignments in a manner that allowed teachers to grade the work and integrate the grades directly into the gradebook.
When you log into Focus, one of the first things you will see are alerts relating to all of your classes. These alerts list the teacher and course title and the grade for that class in real time.
Students and parents will need to click the actual grade for the class to access the gradebook. Clicking the teacher’s name or course title will serve as a link to the class website, if a teacher is using the Focus Lesson Planner to maintain their class website. (If the student is enrolled in more than one school in the district the student will need to make sure the correct school is selected in the drop down menu in the upper right hand corner of the screen.)
When you are assigned a task that allows student uploads, you will receive a notification on your alerts page in the student Focus Portal (alerts only show up 7 days before it’s due). Clicking the alert will take you to the gradebook where you will be able to upload the assignment. You will be able to upload an assignment by clicking the button next to the assignment. Assignments that do not allow student uploads will be labeled “No Assignment Uploading.” After clicking the button, you will be prompted to Upload Files. You can drag and drop files into the window labelled (Drag files to upload) or you can use the button to find and select the file with their computer’s file manager to find and select the file. You can upload almost any file type (except for .zip file formats). File uploads are limited to 50 megabytes in size. Teachers will be able to annotate doc, docx, pdf, ppt, and pptx files. You need to pay careful attention to your teacher’s instructions to make sure you are turning in the right type of file. Failing to follow these instructions could result in you having to redo the assignment and submit it again. Once the file has been selected and uploaded, the file will be listed in the window labelled (Drag files to upload). You should click the close window to complete the submission process.
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