School Manager
Overview
The School Manager tool is used to enter data required by mxweb applications such as eWalk, eTeacher, The Marzano Gradebook and mVal.
The data may be related, for example, to the school itself, as well as its students and classes.
The School Manager parallels a very large subset of the functionality provided buy the Site Manager tool.
You may refer to the Site Manager document.
The School Manager offers a Way to define classes using homerooms, a functional element that the Site Manager does not include.
To start this tool, click the School Manager icon under Admin Functions.
School Tab
Select the School tab if not already selected. Click (if necessary) the Expand icon to select the site. By clicking this icon, the list of sites (usually schools) that belong to a parent site is displayed. The Expand Icon icon is replaced by the Collapse icon which can be clicked to reverse the expand action i.e. to collapse a list of child-sites.
NOTE: You may have to click the Expand icon more than once.
Click the desired school.
You may edit the various fields, including the dates displayed below Reporting Periods (by clicking on the calendars). You may add a site logo (by clicking Browse...) or remove a site logo.
Staff Tab
The Search pane allows you to search school members who meet certain criteria. Select one of the Teachers, Principals, Admins tabs to search for school staff having the respective role.
The two drop-downs can be used to customize the lists:
- Status drop-down: Active, Inactive, or both active and inactive staff (Any Status).
- Show only.. drop-down: Show all or No classes (teachers/principals/admins who do not teach any class).
Likewise, the First name and Last name text input boxes can be used to search an individual student, a group of students who share the same last name or first name, etc. You may enter as little as an initial and all students whose first or last name start with that initial will be listed. You may combine several searching criteria.
Click Search to view a list of site members after changing the search settings. The list will not be otherwise refreshed.
Click a school member in the list to view or edit him/her.
NOTE: You will not see the New Staff tab if you don’t have the permission to add new members.
When you click a user, you see in the right pane a list of fields grouped under the Staff Information header. Edit these fields if required.
NOTE: To edit the two Alt IDs you need a special permission.
NOTE: The fields under Staff Information may be arranged in a different way, depending on the width of your browser. You may need to scroll down to view/edit all the fields.
Fields displayed against a grey background, such as Username and User ID, cannot be edited.
You may upload a picture for any school member by clicking the Change photo button.
Click Save when you are done with the editing.
You may deactivate the user by clicking the Deactivate beside the Active Person icon. When you do so, this icon is replaced by the Inactive Person icon.
You may reactivate a person by clicking the Reactivate, which replaces the Deactivate when a person is deactivated.
Below Staff Information there is an area called Staff Classes. You may need to scroll down to view it:
The following fields of the classes offered by the school member (usually a teacher) are listed:
- (after) course code, course name;
- (after) class name and teacher name.
Several actions can be performed at this point. They pose a sometimes considerable degree of risk, may not be needed except in rare situations, and are not recommended unless you are completely familiar with this functionality.
Select a profile and click Accept to assign the selected school member to a different set of classes, namely to those that correspond to a different homeroom profile, which can be chosen using the Assign profile: drop-down. If a class already has a teacher, the currently selected teacher is assigned along with, rather than instead of, the existing teacher.
Homeroom profiles are discussed in the next chapter.
Click the Deactivate icon to remove the staff member selected in the left pane, usually a teacher, from the class.
Click the Edit icon to add or remove class members (e.g. students) or marking periods from the class:
In the image above, the English class is being edited. When the Students radio button is selected, only students are shown below Class Members. Students who belong to the class, who are designated by a checked checkbox, may be removed from the class by unselecting their checkboxes. Students who do not belong to the class may be added by checking their checkboxes. The Teachers radio button works in a similar way. The Selected people radio button displays all the currently selected class members.
Marking periods may be added or removed in a similar way.
Click Save to make the changes take effect.
Click Cancel to abort the editing operation.
Click the blue right arrow icon to assign the selected school member (usually a teacher) to a different class related to the respective course:
The class read-only field is replaced by a drop-down that you may use to select another class.
Click the Cancel icon to abort the operation. If the class already has a teacher, the currently selected teacher is assigned along with, rather than instead of, the existing teacher.
You may use the Assign profile: drop-down in the Student Classes area to assign the set of classes defined by a homeroom profile to the school member (usually a teacher), thus replacing the currently assigned classes.
WARNING: Although quite simple, this is a very powerful operation. You must be sure that you want to perform it.
Click Edit list to edit several school members at the same time:
You may edit the following fields: Staff ID, Salutation, First name, Last name, Gender, Title.
The text input box just below Title can be used to enter a title for all the listed staff. Type in the desired title and click Replace.
The user ID and username listed beside the Profile icon cannot be edited.
Click Save when you are done.
Click Back to return to the previous screen.
Click New Staff to add a new teacher. This can be done at a time when the Teachers tab is selected, provided you have the administrative permission to add new people.
NOTE: You will not see the New Staff button if you don’t have the permission to add new members.
NOTE: The fields under Staff Information may be arranged in a different way, depending on the width of your browser. You may need to scroll down to set all the fields.
Enter the values of the various fields under the Staff Information header.
Click Save when you are done.
Please note that the New Staff disappears when you switch from the Teacher tab to Principal or Admin. You may add just teachers when the Staff tab is selected. Principals and admin persons can be added using the Site Manager.
There are initially no classes assigned to a teacher. You may use the Assign profile: drop-down in the Staff Classes area to assign the set of classes defined by a profile of your choice to the new teacher:
Click Apply after making your selection.
WARNING: Although quite simple, this is a very powerful operation. You must be sure that you want to perform it.
Homerooms Tab
Homeroom Creation
Click the school’s name. Select the Homerooms tab if not already selected.
Start by clicking Create homeroom profile for each homeroom you want to create.
The following steps refer to the Tools area, which is used to create the homeroom.
1. Type in the homeroom’s name in the Profile name: text input box.
NOTE: The homeroom profile name should be the same as that in the students’ import file.
2. Select the grade using the Show grade: drop-down.
3. Check in all relevant courses’ checkboxes.
NOTE: Scroll down to view all the courses, if necessary.
NOTE: Two drop-downs, Class and Teacher, are displayed beside any selected course, as shown in the image below.
TIP: You may click the Green Flag icon to select all the courses and then click in the checkboxes of the courses you do not want.
4. For each course, select the person who teaches the class using the relevant Teacher drop-down.
5. Click Create.
NOTE: You may click an Edit icon if you forgot to choose a teacher, or to select a different teacher.
Use the drop-down to select the teacher. Click the Save icon to save the selection. Click Save.
6. Click Apply Now beside Batch Update Students: to add the homeroom’s students to each of the classes
7. Click OK in the dialog window that pops up:
8. Wait while the following message beside Batch Update Students:is being displayed:
9. Click OK on the dialog that pops up:
NOTE: These steps populate each and every class pertaining to the homeroom profile with exactly the same students, namely with those whose homeroom field in the import file is the same as the name of the homeroom you have created.
Deleting and Recreating a Homeroom
If, immediately after creating a homeroom profile, the homeroom classes are devoid of students (e.g. as a result of a misspelled homeroom profile name), or if any other major problem is detected, you may perform the steps outlined below to remedy the problem by deleting the homeroom and recreating it.
1. Click the profile you want to recreate:
2. Click Delete profile and classes.
3. Click OK in the first window that pop up.
4. Click Cancel in the second window that pops up.
5. Click Create homeroom profile to recreate the homeroom profile.
Perform steps 1 – 9 in the Homeroom Creation section.
WARNING: Never use the Delete profile and classes after having collected data in relation to the classes e.g. marks and comments for the report card.
Students Tab
Click school’s name and select the Students tab. The Search pane allows you to search students who meet certain criteria.
The three drop-downs can be used to customize the lists:
- Status drop-down: Active, Inactive, or both active and inactive staff (Any Status).
- Show only… drop-down: Show all or No classes (students who do not take any class).
- Grade drop-down: A certain grade or Any grade.
Likewise, the First name and Last name text input boxes can be used to search an individual teacher, a group of teachers who share the same last name or first name, etc. You may enter as little as an initial and all persons whose first or last name start with that initial will be listed. A third text input box, Homeroom, allows you to find students according to their homeroom. You may combine several searching criteria.
Click Search to view a list of students after changing the search settings. The list is not refreshed until you click Search.
Note the listed fields: Name, Gr. (Grade) and HR (Homeroom).
Click the name of a student in the list to select the student. You may view or edit the data of the selected student.
Edit these fields if required. To edit the two Alt IDs you need a special permission.
NOTE: The fields under Student Information may be arranged in a different way, depending on the width of your browser. You may need to scroll down to view/edit all the fields.
You may upload a picture for any school member by clicking the Change photo button.
Click Save when you are done with the editing.
You may deactivate the user by clicking the Active Person icon. When you do so, it is replaced by the Inactive Person icon, which can be used to reactivate a person. As you may see in the above image, below Student Information there is an area called Student Classes, which lists classes attended by the selected student.
The following fields of the classes taken by the student are listed:
- (after) course code, course name;
- (after) class name and teacher name.
Click Deactivate icon to remove the student selected in the left pane from the class. A dialog box pops up. Click OK to confirm the student’s removal from the class. The class is removed from the list of classes attended by the student.
Click the Edit icon to add or remove members (e.g. students) or marking periods from the class:
When the Students radio button is selected, only students are shown below Class Members. Students who belong to the class, who are designated by a checked checkbox, may be removed from the class by unselecting their checkboxes. Students who do not belong to the class may be added by checking their checkboxes. The Teachers radio button works in a similar way. The Selected people radio button displays all the currently selected class members.
Marking periods may be added or removed in a similar way.
Click Save to make the changes take effect.
Click Cancel to abort the editing operation.
Click the blue right arrow icon to assign the student to a different class related to the respective course:
The class read-only field is replaced by a drop-down that you may use to select a different class. Using the drop-down, select the class to which you want to move the student and click Change.
Click the Cancel icon to abort the operation.
You may use the Assign profile drop-down in the Student Classes area to add the student to each of the classes defined by a homeroom profile, thus removing him/her from the current classes.
Click Apply to complete the operation.
WARNING: Although quite simple, this is a very powerful operation. You must be sure that you want to perform it.
Click Edit list to edit several students at the same time:
You may edit the following fields: Student ID, Salutation, First name, Last name, Gender, Title, Homeroom and Grade.
The text input boxes just below the Title, Homeroom and Grade headers can be used to enter values for all the listed students.
Type in the desired values and click Replace.
Click Save when you are done.
Click Back to return to the previous screen.
Click the New Student button to add a student.
NOTE: The fields under Student Information may be arranged in a different way, depending on the width of your browser. You may need to scroll down to set all the fields.
Enter the values of the various fields under Student Information. Click Save when you are done.
There are initially no classes assigned to a student. You may use the Assign profile drop-down in the Student Classes area to add the student to each of the classes defined by a homeroom profile of your choice. Click Apply after making your selection.
WARNING: Although quite simple, this is a very powerful operation. You must be sure that you want to perform it.
Classes Tab
Click the school’s name. By clicking on the Classes tab, you may view and create courses and classes. Please be aware that the list you see upfront in the right pane is a list of courses, rather than a list of classes.
You may delete a course by clicking the Delete icon. Extreme caution should be exercised when courses are deleted. You may edit a course, by clicking the Edit icon:
Modify the grade or subject of necessary.
NOTE: It should not be necessary in general to edit a course, unless a mistake was made when the course was created.
The list of courses can be tailored by selecting Period, Grade and Subject values using the respective drop-downs.
NOTE: In the above image, there are two courses per subject for grade 7. You may need for your school exactly one course per subject and per grade.
Click Create course to create a new course.
Type in the code as well as the name of the course by overwriting 'Untitled' in the Name field. Select one grade and one subject by clicking in the relevant checkboxes.
Click Save when done.
To abort the operation, click Cancel.
NOTE: You are allowed to select more than one grade and more than one subject to create a course. However, this is not recommended.
To view and/or edit the classes related to a course click the Expand icon beside the course. The Expand icon is replaced by the Collapse icon, which can be clicked to reverse the expand action i.e. in order to hide the classes.
You may delete a class by clicking the Delete icon. Extreme caution should be exercised when classes are deleted.
You may edit a class by clicking the Edit icon:
When the Show only: Selected people radio button is selected, you view the teacher and the students associated with the class. When the Show only: Students radio button is selected, you may edit the list of students who attend this class:
Click in an unchecked checkbox to add the student to the class.
Click in a checked checkbox to remove the student from the class.
The teacher may be replaced in a similar way by selecting the Show only: Teachers radio button.
Periods associated with a class are selected or deselected in an analogous way.
Click Save when done.
To abort the operation, click Cancel.
Click Create class to create a new class that corresponds to the expanded course being currently edited.
Type in the code as well as the name of the class by overwriting 'Untitled' in the Name: field.
Select the Show only: Students radio button. As before, you may define the list of students who attend this class:
Traverse the list of students and click in the checkbox whenever the student belongs to the class.
Select the Show only: Teachers radio button. You then select the person who teaches the class in a similar way.
The periods associated with the new class are selected in an analogous way.
Click Save when done.
To abort the operation, click Cancel.
Overview Tab
You may select the Overview tab if you want to verify the classes you have just created.
Select a teacher by clicking on her or his name. The classes taught by this teacher are displayed in the Class area. Select a class to display the students who take the class:
NOTE: You may select a grade, a subject or a course first (rather than a teacher). Use the drop-down to change the initial selection.
After making the initial selection, select one of the classes displayed in the Class area, to view the students that take the class, exactly as before.