A Guide to myMCPS

Montgomery County Public Schools recently implemented the new myMCPS Classroom system during the 2017-2018 School Year.  Created to provide a better, more accessible, and more interactive digital learning environment, myMCPS has replaced Edline.

As an alternative to Google Classroom, myMCPS allows students and parents to easily check grades, see homework updates from teachers, look at class calendars, review class syllabuses, and much more. This guide will explain how the site works, and how to properly access it.

In order to access myMCPS Classroom, click the following link:  http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mymcps-classroom/. Upon scrolling down, viewers will be presented with the following two options: Staff/Students and Parents/Guardians.

Parents and Guardians who click their link will be asked to sign in. Parents should have received a login in the mail early in the school year.  A list of student classes and term grades appear after signing in. Clicking on a class grade will reveal the individual assignment grades the student has received.

The left column of the screen is a navigation tool that allows users to easily access other features of the site. The option directly below Grades is Grade History, where students previously enrolled in MCPS can view their past grades.

The next listing is Attendance, which displays a student’s’ attendance record throughout the year. Beneath Attendance, the feature My Schedule allows students to look at their schedule in two ways: Weekly and Matrix.

Weekly view displays the current week, and each day has a column divided into several rows that displays every class name, teacher, and room number. Matrix view is a horizontal bar that displays the same information in addition to the class period number.

Next, a link called “My MCPS Classroom”, directs students to their personal myMCPS dashboard. The same principle applies to the “Google Classroom (Student)” link, which takes students to their Google Classroom account.

The aforementioned links are followed by a “School Information” option that provides some basic information about the school the student currently attends. After that, there is a page called “Account Preferences” which lets parents and guardians change the language, password and email used for the account.

The final page is called  “Student Emergency Information”, and while it is not functioning properly at the moment, it is designed to display the procedures in place to deal with various emergencies.

Students who click the Staff/Student option on the MCPS web page will first be asked to login with their school google account. Upon logging in, students are met with a dashboard that displays all their classes.

A navigation panel on the left side of the screen contains the following sections: “Home, Announcements, Discussions, Grades, Pages, Syllabus, Collaborations, Discovery Education, and Google Drive”. Students can look through each section to see what their teachers have posted, whether it be answer keys, class information, and/or more.

Not all teachers post assignments  on myMCPS, however. While teachers adjust to myMCPS Classroom, they may still use Google Classroom or simply have physical copies of all class work.  

Above the dashboard section on the navigation portal is a link titled “Account.” Clicking on it brings students to another menu with the following options:  Settings, Notifications, Files and ePortfolios.

Below  “Dashboard” is a link to courses. This allows students  greater ease in navigating their classes. Next, students can check out the  “Calendar,” which is another way to view course assignments. Unfortunately, most teachers don’t use this feature as of now.

Underneath the “Calendar” feature is the “Inbox” page where teachers can post messages to their students. Finally, there is a link to the “Resources” page that gives students some additional links in case they need help with some aspect  of myMCPS. One of these links is called “myMCPS Portal,” and it redirects parents and students to the login page.

There is currently a myMCPS and Canvas app available to download. The Canvas app is the same thing as the myMCPS Classroom where students can view assignments, grades, teacher announcements, and everything listed above.

For additional resources, information, help and clarification on how to guide myMCPS, please visit the following link: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mymcps-classroom/index.aspx and scroll down to the very bottom for videos and additional pages to help you out.

Article by Moco Student staff writer Matthew Minton of Quince Orchard High School