How to use the River Tech portal

Part 1 · Getting in

There are two ways to sign in, and which one you use depends on whether you have an email address yet.

Your account

You don't sign yourself up. A parent or a teacher opens your account for you. When they do, you get an email with a link in it. Click the link, choose a password, and that's it — from then on you sign in at rivertech.me with your email address and that password.

Two things that trip people up:

• The link works once, and it stops working after a while. If it says the link is no longer valid, ask for a new one — you haven't broken anything.
• Your email address has to be your own. You can't share one with your parent, because one address can only be one account.

Choose a password of at least 8 characters. Every screen asks for the same thing, so you only have to decide once.

The Games PIN

Don't have an email account yet? You still get to play. A teacher can give you a 4-character PIN — four letters or numbers, like K7RM.

On the sign-in page, click the 🎮 Games PIN tab instead of the Email tab, type your PIN, and press Sign in with PIN.

Example only — that is not a real PIN.

Your PIN isn't shown anywhere in the portal. If you forget it, ask a teacher — they can read it out or give you a new one. A new one stops the old one working.

Finding your way around

The bar across the top is the whole of your navigation. Seven things:

Home, Games and Skills are on rivertech.me. Portal, Classes, Messages and Profile are on the classes side.

Four more live under a 🧭 More card at the bottom of the Portal screen, because you need them now and then rather than daily: 📄 Documents, 📝 Testing, 🏆 Activities and 🎵 Worship / Band.

Part 2 · Your school work

Where your classes are, and how to hand work in so it actually arrives.

Your classes

📚 Classes shows every class you are in. Each card has the subject, the grade range, your teacher's name and when it meets.

Not in a class you should be in? Go to the 📊 Portal screen and press ➕ Join Class, then type the class code your teacher gives you — something like ABC123. If it doesn't work you'll be told the code is invalid; check it with your teacher rather than guessing.

Open a class and you get four buttons:

A class that's finished shows 🔒 This class is closed. You can still read your grades and history in it; you just can't add anything new.

Handing work in

Open the assignment. You can hand in typed text, a file, or both — and a pasted link (a Google Drive share link, say) counts as text.

Example only.

• Past the due date? You'll see a warning that it's overdue. You can still hand it in — it may just be marked late.
• Changed your mind? Open it again and press Edit Submission. Your new file replaces the old one, so your teacher only ever sees one.
• Says "Offline Assignment"? Then there's nothing to upload. It's done in class and your teacher enters the mark directly.
• Says "Excused"? Your teacher has excused you. It won't count against you.

Grades and feedback

Once it's marked, opening the assignment shows Your Grade — a letter and the points — and, underneath, Teacher Feedback if your teacher wrote any. Read that part. It's the bit that tells you what to do differently.

Your quarter grade is built from two things: Academic (your assignments) and Participation (set by your teacher). How much each one counts depends on the class, and the class page tells you which it is — Even 50/50, Skill-Heavy 60/40 or Participation-Heavy 40/60.

Tests

Under 🧭 More → 📝 Testing. It opens with My Tests and three numbers: Pending Tests, Completed, and your Average Score.

Press Start Test. You get one question at a time with a progress bar, and Submit Test only appears on the last question. Multiple-choice questions are marked straight away; if the test has any written answers the whole thing waits for your teacher, and you'll see "Awaiting teacher review".

Messaging a teacher

💬 Messages. Pick who you want from the To: list, type, and press ✉️ Send Message.

Part 3 · Games, skills and RTC

This half is the reason most people open the portal without being told to.

The games

🎮 Games has seventeen of them. The first nine are the training centres — they run placement tests, teach you a skill, then challenge you on it:

And eight more that are games first:

Games open inside the page. ⛶ Fullscreen makes one bigger, ← Back to Games gets you out.

Skill trees

🌟 Skills is where you see what you've unlocked. Nine subjects: Math, Science, Language, Technology, Creative, Social Studies, Bible, Life Skills and Physical. Pick one and your tree for it opens.

You don't earn anything on the Skills screen itself — it's a map, not a game. Skills are unlocked by playing. A skill moves from activated to mastered as your score climbs.

RTC — River Tech Currency

You earn RTC for real work: mastering skills, assignments, and awards your teachers give out. Your balance is on your Home screen, and on the Games and Skills screens if you sign in with a PIN.

One rate you can see for yourself: the Retention Gauntlet in Math Dojo pays 3 RTC for a recent skill, 2 for a touch-on, 1 for a retention — and each individual skill only pays once every 24 hours, so grinding the same one doesn't work.

🏦 The Bank

You can leave RTC in the bank and it earns interest each month. Taking it out costs tax — unless you withdraw during the tax-free window, which the bank screen tells you the dates of. Watch for "Tax-Free Window Active!".

🛍️ The Store

Two tabs.

If a button says Need 40 more RTC, that's the price minus what you have.

Clubs, sport and band

🏆 Activities under 🧭 More. Two tabs — My Activities and Browse All. Each one shows the coach, where and when it meets, and how many places are taken.

The button tells you where you stand:

• Join — you're in.
• Tryout — a sport that picks its team; this asks to try out.
• Full — no places left.
• Leave — you're already in it.

🎵 Worship / Band is its own page. If you're not on the team yet you'll see 🙋 Ask to join Worship / Band — pick the instruments you'd like to play (you can pick more than one), add a note if you want, and press Send my request. You can cancel it while it's waiting, and if you're turned down you're welcome to ask again.

Part 4 · Your settings

All on the 👤 Profile screen.

What you can change

• Your password — type a new one twice and press Update Password.
• Your email address — you have to click a link in both your old inbox and your new one before it switches over.
• One email setting — New Assignments, which is on unless you turn it off.
• How the site looks — six themes, including a Light one if dark is hard to read. You can also set your own colours and a background image.
• Your cosmetics — the avatar, title and badges you bought with RTC.

Your theme follows your account, so it looks the same on a school computer and at home.

What you can't change

Your name is read-only, and that's on purpose: it's what every register, gradebook and pickup list calls you, so it's the school's to change, not yours. If it's wrong or spelled badly, tell the office and they'll fix it.

Also set by the school and not by you: your grade level, your Games PIN, your RTC balance, and whether your account is switched on.

Quick reference

Other guides: parents · teachers · administrators · all four