Does anyone still use HST+?

[matrips]

Hi,

I was a faithful years a couple years back and got away from it. I started looking back into tonight and went to the forums for help remembering what to do! and advice on how to set up again. I'm not sure I'll set everything up the same way again, especially subjects, debating on pros/cons... But it looks deserted. barely a post. and the yahoogroup that had all the lesson plans looks deserted too. What has happened?!

 

Thanks!

[bluemongoose]

I still use it. I think a lot of people migrated to the online version.

[Tress]

I use it. I love it!

 

Never been on the forum or yahoo group, though.

[boscopup]

I still use it! There are still a lot of lesson plans on the Yahoo groups. I imagine the forums are slow because many questions have already been answered, and they haven't changed anything the last few years.

[Tracy]

I still use it but have never used the forums. I spent my first year fiddling with it, and now I know how to use it best suit my needs. Do you have any specific questions_

[LisaKinVA]

I'm still figuring it out...There are some things I like in Edu-Track better...but Edu-Track no longer works with my computer (and I can't find my original disk)...so I'm using HST+ (not the on-line version). I have so much to enter this year...so much. I'm hoping my mom is going to help me in July figure it all out.

[TraceyS/FL]

I'm not currently using it - but maybe I should.... I was going to buy Olly for my Mac, but I own HST+. I'm sure I can figure it all out again - but there was some stuff that drove me nuts that Olly does better, but then some stuff is missing from Olly that is in HST+. But one day my kids will be able to have a schedule on their Touches to use with Olly.

 

I never used the lessons plans anyone shared, and used the forums occasionally.

 

Lisa, go into it with an open mind - and play with it before doing the real stuff. That is what helped me the most - my brain did not function like theirs at all - so i had to learn to flex. A lot. :D

[Cynful]

I think I've tried every other one out there (HST Online, EduTrack, Scholaric, OLLY, excel, paper, and others) and I just can't find another that does what HST+ does for me. I wish it was prettier, but bottom line, it works. The only other one I kind of like is that Ipad app one (the name escapes me right now).

[Woodhaven]

I still use it. I own it, as others have said, and I just can't see paying a yearly fee for something "new" unless I really need it. :)

[TraceyS/FL]

I think I've tried every other one out there (HST Online, EduTrack, Scholaric, OLLY, excel, paper, and others) and I just can't find another that does what HST+ does for me. I wish it was prettier, but bottom line, it works. The only other one I kind of like is that Ipad app one (the name escapes me right now).

UGH... this isn't making me excited. I'm going to have to look again and play before I buy something else right now - I own it, I'm poor, and I know I can make it work.

[matrips]

I still use it but have never used the forums. I spent my first year fiddling with it, and now I know how to use it best suit my needs. Do you have any specific questions_

 

 

I do. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how best to set up my subjects. Do I want Language Arts as the subject and then Spelling, Writing, Handwriting, Grammar etc under that? Or is it easier in the long run to just have each course/program as its own subject? For math, I use Singapore and Mathusee, so again, do I want one Math Subject, or two - Singapore Math and MathuSee Math?

 

What are the advantages/disadvantages of each way? I pretty know what I want to cover in each program on a weekly basis.

 

Still wish there was an easier way for Sonlight! I spent eons entering it for 1st. Not relishing doing it for Core C that I just bought.

 

Any other ah-ha's you've had? I'm wondering how much the program has changed in the past two years!

 

Thanks.

[Tracy]

 

I do. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how best to set up my subjects. Do I want Language Arts as the subject and then Spelling, Writing, Handwriting, Grammar etc under that? Or is it easier in the long run to just have each course/program as its own subject?

 

It is easier to have Language Arts as a Subject with various courses underneath. I don't see any reason you would want to break them up into different subjects. Having them as courses within one subject will allow you the choice to create reports as separate courses or to lump them together. Better to have the choice.

 

 

For math, I use Singapore and Mathusee, so again, do I want one Math Subject, or two - Singapore Math and MathuSee Math?

 

Don't think of Singapore and Math U See as two separate courses. They are both math. Remember that your subjects are not your curriculum choices. Your student is taking a math class, not a Singapore class and a Math U See class. If you look at the Teacher tab, you will see where you can put all your Singapore plans and your Math U See Lesson Plans separately. You will have a list of Lesson Plans labelled "Singapore" , and another labeled Math U See." (Make sure to add the level so you can differentiate them from future levels). When you assign those lesson plans to your student, it will all be under the subject of Math, but it will say Singapore or Math U See. I recommend entering your lesson plans here over the summer and then submitting them to your student's assignment grid as they do those assignments. (I submit all assignments weekly.)

 

You will need to decide whether to name your class just plain Math or to be more specific, as in Third Grade Math. It is easiest in the program to have just Math. However, I have been putting Third Grade Math, because I want it to be clear on report cards what level my student is working at. But that means I have to add a new course every year.

 

 

 

Still wish there was an easier way for Sonlight! I spent eons entering it for 1st. Not relishing doing it for Core C that I just bought.

 

Yeah, history/literature is a bit of a pain. I use TOG, and I can't enter everything over the summer, because I use the library, and I don't always know what I will end up with. However, I do enter lesson plan templates for each week, and I can make as many copies as I have books/assignments.

 

Again, do not put Sonlight in your Subjects and Courses. You will put History, Literature, Geography, and whatever other subject Sonlight covers for you. The Sonlight lesson plans will be under your Teacher tab. Within each lesson plan, you can put the lesson plan under whatever course it is for. That way, all your SL stuff is on the same page. You can even list the sequence. TOG is arranged by week numbers, so I use the sequence feature to put all my stuff for one week together under the same sequence number (which is the same as the TOG week number).

 

 

Any other ah-ha's you've had? I'm wondering how much the program has changed in the past two years!

 

I discovered that you can set the program to automatically track attendance and mark the student as present whenever you mark work as being completed on a particular day. While I don't have to track attendance, it is nice to be able to say that my kid did school work on X number of days.

 

You can reschedule entire groups of assignments. Handy if you get sick or just make a scheduling mistake.

[matrips]

Okay, that's how I did my subjects before. I started second guessing myself the other night though, and wondering if that was really the best way. Yes, I did use to use the attendance thing and frequently the rescheduling! Thanks.

[LisaKinVA]

Okay, for all of you HST+ Experts...

 

I'm having trouble figuring out what to do for middle-school and high school English.

 

I haven't really scheduled lessons per-se for the younger ones (mainly because I didn't NEED to...just did the next thing). However, for transcript purposes, I'm trying to come up with something that will print out the reports and the transcript the way I want...English 9, for example includes: Grammar, Vocabulary, Composition and Literature. English 10 will be the same. English 11 will really be just Literature Analysis (lots of papers), and English 12 will simply be a Senior Thesis (although regular literature study will also occur). Do I create COURSES for English 9, 10, etc.?

[Tenaj]

Hi,

I was a faithful years a couple years back and got away from it. I started looking back into tonight and went to the forums for help remembering what to do! and advice on how to set up again. I'm not sure I'll set everything up the same way again, especially subjects, debating on pros/cons... But it looks deserted. barely a post. and the yahoogroup that had all the lesson plans looks deserted too. What has happened?!

 

Thanks!

 

 

They closed the old forums and started new ones. I think the old ones are still available in an archived form but I'm not sure how to access. You're right - there hasn't been much action on the new boards at all . . . I'm assuming also that many have migrated to HST Online and since it is much more user friendly there aren't as many questions.