5 Free, Can't-Miss Skyward Resources

#Tips

Lauren Gilchrist

by Lauren Gilchrist

Lauren Gilchrist EdTech Thought Leader

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Whether you’ve been with us for 4 months or 40 years, we can help you get the most from Skyward. Today we’re sharing tools that will help you do just that, all available for free! From training sessions to fun videos to a Spanish toolkit, check out these five can’t-miss resources.

1. Skyward’s handy dandy video library

Skyward offers the largest video library in our industry with over 700 videos! You’re guaranteed to find something that will help you use Skyward more effectively or provide the inspiration you need to spark positive change in your district. This list barely scratches the surface, but here are a few types of videos you’ll find on our You Tube channel:

Day in the Life: Join us as we interview both school district and Skyward employees to find out what a day in their shoes looks like.
Tutorials: From 60-Second Power Ups to in-depth overviews, you can learn to use Skyward with our tutorials.
On the Roads: Join me (Lauren) on the road as I visit school districts taking creative, non-traditional approaches to education (think kindergarten coding, chickens in the classroom, and building race cars).
Help resource videos: Take your Skyward knowledge a step further by familiarizing yourself with the resources we have available like the Product Ideas Portal, Help Center, and Skyward Academy.

You can also embed any Skyward video directly on your district website. (Think of how helpful it might be to, for example, have a “how to register your child” video on your website before the start of a new school year!) We broke down the steps for embedding videos in this post.

2. The Spanish Family Access Toolkit

Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for every parent and guardian to play an active role in their child’s education. We’re helping ease the language barrier for Spanish-speaking families by offering a Family Access Toolkit entirely in Spanish. Herramientas de Recursos offers Spanish tutorial videos demonstrating how to carry out tasks like checking your child’s grades, setting up push notifications, and planning for graduation.

We also wrote an article about how to translate Skyward into any language. This article is available in both English and Spanish.

3. The Product Ideas Portal

Software design at Skyward doesn’t just involve our team—it involves yours too! The Product Ideas Portal is a place for you to submit ideas for the Skyward software. All ideas are posted publicly, so you can vote for and comment on your favorites. When you submit or vote for an idea, you’ll see updates and get notifications about its development. If you have an idea for Skyward, the Portal is the place to be!

4. Free training courses

Each month, your team can take advantage of free training courses led by Skyward professionals to sharpen your skills.

If you use SMS 2.0, the Skyward Academy is the place to be. It offers two types of trainings: As their name implies, Just in Time courses dig into timely topics (think New Student Online Enrollment or Summer Submissions), while the Full Training Courses take a deep dive into the various Skyward modules (Special Education or Employee Management, for instance).

Every month, the Academy offers dozens of sessions ranging from one to three hours. See a course you’re interested in but can’t make it? Sessions are recorded and available in SkyDoc under the Skyward Academy path.

If you’re a Qmlativ user, the Help Center is the place to go! The Help Center is a one-stop support shop housing every tutorial, flow chart, checklist, and training video we created for the system. The Help Center was designed to help you get the most out of your technology without having to make a call. With the smart search capability, you can find content and documentation that relates to your problem and is tailored to your role.

5. Our insightful monthly newsletters

We offer two newsletters, each of which are delivered to your inbox once a month. Skyward Insider (the blog you’re reading right now) offers important updates on Skyward enhancements, tips, and tricks. Advancing K12, which was named a Top 50 Must-Read K-12 IT blog, dives into higher-level topics like leadership, culture, data, and achievement. Both newsletters feature our popular monthly Tech Tips article, which keeps you up to date on technology trends and spotlights a malware of the month to watch out for.

Subscribe to either (or both!) blogs at: skyward.com/subscribe.

Don’t miss out! All these resources are available to you for free! We hope you and your district community enjoy them.