Getting started

Create an account

1. Open SchoolStack in your web browser and choose Create account.
2. Type Your name, your Email and a Password (at least 8 characters).
3. Choose I'm a student or I'm a teacher, then Create account.

You are signed in straight away. (Command: user.create.)

• Students join classes with the class code their teacher gives them.
• Teachers can create classes once the school's administrator approves their account (see For the person who runs the server). Until then, the Classes page says the account is waiting, and you can join classes as a student.
• Accounts made before this choice existed are asked once, on the Classes page ("Welcome… Are you a student or a teacher?"). (Command: user.chooseRole.) Anyone who already teaches a class is a teacher already.

Example: Ms. Sara signs up and chooses I'm a teacher. The Classes page says her account is waiting. The administrator approves her on the Users page; when Sara reloads, + Create a class appears.

When your school asks for a class code

Your school's administrator can choose that only students with a class code can create an account. Then the Create an account page has a Class code box instead of "I'm a student / I'm a teacher":

1. Type your name, email and a password.
2. Type the Class code your teacher gave you (capital or small letters both work), then Create account.

You're signed in and in that class straight away. To join another class later, use Join a class on the Classes page with that class's code. (Command: user.create with a class code.)

Teachers can't sign up this way: ask the school's administrator, who adds you on the Users page and gives you a temporary password.

Some schools close the sign-up page completely: there is then no Create account link, and the page says "Accounts are created by your school's administrator". Ask them (or your teacher); you get your email and a temporary password, and choose your own password when you first sign in (nothing else opens until you have).

Example: Ms. Sara writes the code k7m2qpx on the board. Ali opens SchoolStack on his phone, chooses Create account, types his name, email, a password and k7m2qpx, and lands on the Biology Stream.

Forgot your password?

On the Sign in page, choose Forgot your password?, type the email you sign in with and choose Send me a link. If that email has an account, you get an email "Reset your SchoolStack password" with a link. Open it within 1 hour, type a new password twice and choose Save password: you're signed in, and signed out on your other phones and computers. Each link works once, and only the newest one you asked for works. You can ask for 3 links an hour. (The page looks the same whether or not the email has an account, so nobody can use it to find out who has one.)

If your school hasn't turned email on, the page says to ask instead: your teacher (students) or the school's administrator (everyone). They give you a temporary password such as abcde-fghjk. Sign in with it, and SchoolStack asks you to Choose a new password before anything else. (Commands: user.resetPassword, user.setPassword.)

To change your password at any time: Settings ▸ Account ▸ Change your password, type your current password and the new one twice. A new password signs you out on your other phones and computers (the one you're using stays signed in), and so does a temporary password from your teacher or administrator.

Example: Ali forgets his password on Sunday evening. He chooses Forgot your password?, types ali@school.org, opens the email on his phone, chooses a new password and is back in his classes.

Sign in and sign out

• To sign in, type your email and password and choose Sign in. You stay signed in on that browser for two weeks, even when the server is updated or restarted.
• To sign out, choose Sign out at the top of any page.
• Wrong password five times? After 5 wrong passwords for the same email within 15 minutes, SchoolStack stops trying that email for a while, so nobody can guess passwords. Wait 15 minutes and try again, or ask your teacher or administrator for a temporary password (that ends the wait at once). After 50 wrong passwords from one network (any emails) within 15 minutes, sign-ins from that network wait 15 minutes too ("too many wrong passwords from your network"). The limit is high because a whole school often shares one internet connection.

Example: Ali signs in on the school computer, finishes his work, and chooses Sign out so the next student can't open his account. Another day he types an old password five times; the page says to wait 15 minutes, so he asks his teacher for a temporary password instead.

Your home page: Classes

After you sign in you see Classes: every class you teach or take. From here you can:

• Join a class with the class code your teacher gives you: type it in Class code and choose Join. Capital letters don't matter. (Command: class.join.)
• Create a class that you will teach (approved teachers and administrators): type a Class name (and, if you like, a section, subject and room) and choose Create. You become its owner, and the class gets a 7-letter class code to share with students. (Command: class.create.)
• See Archived classes, which are finished classes kept for reference.

The links at the top of every page are Classes, To-do (students' unfinished work), Users (administrators only), Settings, Help and Sign out.

Example: Ali's Classes page shows two cards, "Science" (orange) and "Mathematics" (green). He chooses "Science" to open it.

Training: learn step by step

New to SchoolStack? Open Training (from the "New to SchoolStack?" card on Classes, or from Help). It has short modules: For teachers (10 steps, from creating a class to choosing the class's daily email) and For students (6 steps, from joining a class to seeing grades). Students see the student module; teachers see both.

Each step explains what to do, shows a picture of the page, and has a Try it button that opens the real page. A step is ticked by itself when you really do it (for example, when you create your first class). For steps SchoolStack can't see, such as reading your To-do, choose Mark as done (or Mark as not done to undo). (Command: training.mark.)

Practice class: choose Make a practice class to get a class with pretend people and work, so you can try every step without touching your real classes. (Command: training.practice.)

• Teachers teach it, with two pretend students, one essay already turned in to grade and return, and a question already answered.
• Students are a student in it, with a pretend teacher, a piece of work already graded, an assignment to hand in and a question to answer.
• Pretend people can't sign in and don't appear on the Users page. When you're done, choose Remove the practice class; it and its pretend people are deleted. (Command: training.removePractice.)

Example: Mr. Tom has just been approved as a teacher. He opens Training, makes a practice class, and follows the steps: he grades and returns the pretend student Amal's essay, adds a rubric, and downloads the grades. Then he removes the practice class and creates his real one.

Inside a class

A class has these tabs:

• Stream: announcements and comments; for students, the next few things due.
• Classwork: everything to do or read, grouped by topic.
• People: the teachers and students.
• Grades (teachers) or Your grades (students).
• Settings (teachers only): the class's details, class code, grading and storage.

Next: read the guide for teachers or for students.

Example: In "Science", Ali opens Classwork to find this week's work by topic, and Your grades to see the marks his teacher has returned.