MySchool Student Guide

Logging In

You can visit most courses as a guest if you just need to download a handout or check a calendar. However, logging in allows you to enroll in courses and participate in activities.

Most student logins are their first initial and lastname. For example, Jane Cool would log in as jcool.

If you are new student to CMS or CHS or a 6th grader then your password is:
changeme
You will then be able to choose your own password.

If you forget your password then ask your computer teacher, the computer lab teacher, librarian or cmatheson@carmelunified.org to reset your password.

If your first initial and last name don't work, try first initial and lastname plus the number 2. So Joe Cool would login as jcool2.

Forums

Forums are online discussions.
Unlike face to face discussions, posts to a forum can happen at different times and places, giving you time to think and research.

Key Terms:

• Thread-Many forums allow for multiple topics or threads. Each thread can have its own page of replies
  
• Attachment-At the bottom of every forum post you can add a file (the size depends on the forum settings, but it could be any type of file; image, video, document, etc.)
• Subscription-When you post to a forum you will be given the option to subscribe. That means you will receive emails of the posts
  
• Daily Digest-In your profile you can select to receive one email per post in subscribed forums OR a single email a day with all of the posts.
  
• News Forum-Only teachers can post in the news forum. All students are subscribed to the news forum
  
• WYSIWYG editor-Firefox and Internet Explorer show you a full editing toolbar when writing a post. This is called a What You See Is What You Get editor. Other browsers will only show you a text box.
  

You have a period time after you post to review and check for errors. After that you can't edit your post.

Tips for good forum posts and replies

• Create a good subject line that describes/summarizes your post (when you reply feel free to change the subject line)
• Use evidence (add links to your sources if they are online)
• Respectfully disagree-argue with the idea not the person
• Constructively agree-While saying "Nice post" is friendly it doesn't add a lot to the discussion. Try to find something specific in the post you agree with or liked and EXTEND or EXPAND on that idea with your own thoughts and examples