SCHOOLMASTER. Appointment Scheduling. Student Information Systems. Revised - August Schoolmaster is SIF Certified

Transcription

1 SCHOOLMASTER Student Information Systems Appointment Scheduling Revised - August 2005 Schoolmaster is SIF Certified Schoolmaster uses ctree Plus from FairCom

2 2005 Printed Documentation Revised August All Rights Reserved Published by Olympia Computing Company No part of this publication may be produced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any language or computer language, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Olympia Computing Company, Incorporated. Olympia Computing Company, Inc. makes no representations or warranties, real or implied, to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any warranties, real or implied, of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Olympia Computing Company, Inc. reserves the right to revise the contents of this publication without prior notification to the user. All names used in this publication are fictitious. Any similarities between persons living or dead is purely coincidental. SCHOOLMASTER is the registered trademark of Olympia Computing Company, Inc 7249 Capitol Boulevard South Tumwater, WA (360) All other product names, trade names, or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

3 Table Of Contents Appointment Scheduling... 1 Chapter 1 - Introduction... 3 Appointment Scheduling Components... 3 Functions in Appointments... 4 Setup for Appointment Scheduling... 4 Creating the Appointment Topics Validation Table... 4 Attaching the Appointment Topics Validation Table... 7 Process for Appointment Scheduling...7 Before Scheduling Appointments... 7 Schedule Proposed Appointments and Review with Teachers... 8 Notify Parents of Proposed Appointments... 8 Finalize the Appointment Schedule... 8 Work Activity Guide... 8 Getting Started... 8 Ongoing Activities... 8 End of Year Procedures... 8 Chapter 2 - Appointments in the Staff File... 9 Prerequisites for Staff View Appointment Scheduling... 9 Accessing the Staff: Appointments View...9 Reading the Staff: Appointments View...9 Scheduling Appointments - Staff File...11 Adding a Single Appointment for a Staff Member Scheduling Appointments by Homeroom in the Staff: Appointments View Working with Scheduled Appointments Viewing Appointments Scheduled for a Specific Date Using Marked Appointments...17 Marking and Unmarking Appointments Creating a Filter to Select Marked or Unmarked Appointments Marked Appointments and Mass Change Changing Appointments' Marked Status Using Mass Change Changing Marked Appointments' Fields Using Mass Change Deleting Appointments Deleting an Appointment...19 Deleting Multiple Appointments Chapter 3 - Appointment Assignment Utility Prerequisites for the Appointment Assignment Utility Scheduling Appointments for Selected Homeroom Teachers Chapter 4 - Appointment Listings Unscheduled Students Listing Printing the Unscheduled Student Listing Staff Appointments Listing Printing the Staff Appointments Listing Table of Contents - Appointment Scheduling i

4 Student Appointments Listing Printing the Student Appointments Listing Chapter 5 - Appointment Letters...29 Prerequisites for Appointment Letters Sample Appointment Letter and Layout Creating Appointment Letters Creating the Appointment Letter Layout Adding Appointment Letter Specifications Printing and Verifying Appointment Letters Index...37 ii Table of Contents - Appointment Scheduling

5 Appointment Scheduling This manual contains information of interest to school administrators, counselors, and secretaries who schedule appointments for staff and parent conferences. Topics covered in this manual include: 1 - Introduction to Appointment Scheduling Introduces the Appointment Scheduling utilities, describes the scheduling process, and suggests a list of work activities. 2 - Appointment Assignment/Editing in the Staff View Describes the different methods of entering and updating appointments using the Staff view. 3 - Using the Appointment Assignment Utility Describes how office staff can create appointments using the Appointment Assignment utility. 4 - Appointment Listings Describes how to use Appointment Listings to print a list of unscheduled students or a list of appointments by staff or by students. 5 - Appointment Letters Describes how to create letters to alert participants to proposed appointments and provide for rescheduling in case of time conflicts. Appointment Scheduling 1

6 2 Appointment Scheduling Information in this printed documentation is supplemental and

7 Chapter 1 - Introduction This chapter describes features and implementation activities of the Schoolmaster Appointment Scheduling components. Appointment Scheduling Components Use the Schoolmaster Appointment Scheduling components to schedule parent/teacher conferences between a teacher and the students' parents. Appointments can be scheduled using the Staff: Appointment view or using the Appointment Assignment utility. Staff: Appointments view This view is used to schedule appointments one staff member at a time. Any personnel (teachers, health, guidance, or administrative staff) in the Staff File can be scheduled for appointments using the Staff: Appointments view. Use this view to Schedule appointments for all students in one teacher's homeroom roster. This utility can schedule siblings in this teacher's roster with contiguous appointments if possible but cannot consider siblings in other homeroom rosters. Schedule appointments for anyone in the Staff file, one student at a time. Schedule a non-student meeting (e.g., the principal, another teacher, or a committee). Schedule two appointments for the same time slot when one will be deleted later or not actually attended. Block a teacher's time as unavailable to the Appointment Assignment utility allowing for personal appointments such as dentist appointments, meetings, or commitments to supervise after school activities. To view or edit a staff member's appointments. Appointments scheduled in this view cannot automatically consider sibling appointments throughout the school. You must use the Appointment Assignment utility if you wish to keep parent conferences for siblings in different homeroom classes in contiguous time slots. Appointment Assignment Utility This utility is used to schedule appointments for selected instructors. Non-homeroom staff cannot be scheduled by this utility. Use this utility when Scheduling appointments for all students in the rosters of selected homeroom teachers. Scheduling appointments for siblings within the school contiguously whenever possible. Appointment Listings Use appointment listings to print listings of Unscheduled Students -- After running the appointment assignment utility or entering appointments in the Staff: Appointments view, use this listing to ensure that none of the students requiring appointments has been missed. Staff Appointments -- Prints a list of each staff's appointments with students. Use this listing to allow staff to review and revise proposed appointments. Appointment Scheduling 3

8 Student Appointments -- Prints each student's appointment(s) with teachers. This list is particularly helpful when checking to see if students have duplicate appointments and accommodating parents who are calling to revise proposed appointment times. Appointment Letters Use appointment letters to notify parents of proposed appointment(s) and adjust conference times as needed if they cannot attend at the assigned time. Functions in Appointments In the Staff: Appointments view, click the functions button to access: Limit View to One Day -- Useful when editing appointments for a particular conference period day. Use to limit the appointments displayed to those on a given date; if the view has been limited, Show All Appointments also appears on the Functions list. Schedule Appointments for this Teacher -- Use to schedule appointments with this teacher's homeroom roster students' parents. Only schedules appointments for homeroom students -- can't be used for non-homeroom appointments. Setup for Appointment Scheduling Appointment letters and listings require a validation table for appointment Topics (attaching a validation table to a field causes that field to be verified against the list of entries in the attached validation table). Follow the steps below to create and attach an appointment Topics validation table. If you have previously created appointments, use the Verify Validated Fields utility to replace Topic entries that do not conform to the validation table you create. Creating the Appointment Topics Validation Table 1. Choose Setup, General, Validation Tables from the menu bar. 2. Click Add to open the Add Validation Table dialog. 4 Appointment Scheduling

9 3. Type the name of the validation table (e.g., Appointment Topics) then click OK to display the Edit Validation Table Entries dialog. 4. For each Appointment Topic required, click Add Entry and establish the specifications. If the data field to which the table is attached can be left blank, create a blank option (two hyphens for Code and Title) and place it at the top of the list. Appointment Scheduling 5

10 Fields in the Add Entry Dialog Code Type the code for this appointment topic. Each code must be unique; therefore, only one entry with a blank code can exist per validation table. Once created, the code cannot be edited; you can delete the validation table entry and create a new one with the proper code. Title Other (Code) SPEEDE/ExPRESS Code Enter the title, name, or description of the appointment. Reserved for future use. Reserved for future use. 5. Use the following to arrange the entries: Click Sort to arrange the list in alphabetical order by Code or Title. Blank entries will always be listed first. Select the entry that is to be moved, then click the applicable Down/Up button; move the most frequently used entry to the top to reduce keystrokes during data entry. 6. When the required entries are complete, click Close to leave the Edit Validation Table Entries dialog. 7. The Validation Table Options dialog should remain open so you can attach the Appointment Topics table to the appropriate field. If you delete a validation table entry or the entire validation table, records with entries previously made from the validation table will not be erased. However, after the validation entry or table is deleted, the record will no longer show the Title text, it will be replaced by the underlying Code (e.g., Female is replaced by F). Detaching a table from a field has the same effect. 6 Appointment Scheduling

11 Attaching the Appointment Topics Validation Table 1. Choose File, Staff and select the Appointments view. 2. You must have an appointment so that you can attach the validation table to the appropriate field. Either navigate to an instructor with an existing appointment or create one temporarily (click Add Appointment, No, OK to create a blank appointment for any member of the staff). 3. Place the cursor in the Topics field. Do not close the window. 4. Choose Setup, General, Validation Tables, to open the Edit Validation Table Entries dialog (or click to reactivate the dialog you left open after Creating the Appointment Topics Validation Table) and select the Appointment Topics validation table you created. Click Attach. 5. If you created a blank appointment in step 2, you may select it and click Delete Appointment. 6. If you have created appointments before this validation table, use the Verify Validated Fields utility to replace Topic entries that do not conform to the validation table. Process for Appointment Scheduling The following is the general procedure for scheduling appointments. Skip steps not applicable to your setting or appointments. Before Scheduling Appointments 1. Create/edit a validation table for appointment Topics and attach it to the Topics field in the Staff: Appointments view (see Setup for Appointment Scheduling). 2. If you have existing Appointment records in the Staff file delete unnecessary or outdated appointments (see Deleting Multiple Appointments -- Purge versus Delete). 3. Ensure that the homeroom rosters are up to date. 4. If setting up appointments while students are Preenrolled during the summer, set the Report Date field in the Configuration file to a date within the coming school year (Setup, General, Configuration, Report Date field). 5. Use the Staff: Appointments view to add personal appointments that block times when the teacher will not be available for appointments (see Adding a Single Appointment for a Staff Member). 6. Enter prearranged parent-teacher conferences (e.g., Mrs. Maynard called and wants a 2:30 P.M. appointment) (see Adding a Single Appointment for a Staff Member). Appointment Scheduling 7

12 Schedule Proposed Appointments and Review with Teachers 1. Run the Appointment Assignment utility (see Using the Appointment Assignment Utility). 2. Print the list of unscheduled students (see Unscheduled Students Listing). Determine the cause and schedule. 3. Print and distribute each teacher's appointment schedule (see Staff Appointments Listing). Edit appointments per teacher requests. Notify Parents of Proposed Appointments 1. Establish or review the Appointment Letter layout (see Appointment Letters). 2. Print, verify, and mail appointment letters (see Appointment Letters). Finalize the Appointment Schedule 1. Adjust appointment times as needed to accommodate parents who cannot attend at the assigned time (see Working with Scheduled Appointments). 2. Print and distribute the final appointment schedule using the Staff Appointments Listing and Student Appointments Listing as appropriate. Work Activity Guide Getting Started Ensure that all staff for whom you may schedule appointments are in the Staff file. Ensure that all student parent/guardian addresses are up to date and that each student has at least one relationship flagged as Lives With. Ensure that all homeroom rosters are up to date. Establish a validation table for appointment Topics (see Setup for Appointment Scheduling). Establish the appointment letter layout (see Appointment Letters). Review the Process for Appointment Scheduling. Ongoing Activities Maintain student parent/guardian addresses and relationships. Maintain up to date homeroom rosters. End of Year Procedures See Deleting Multiple Appointments -- Purge versus Delete. 8 Appointment Scheduling

13 Chapter 2 - Appointments in the Staff File This view is used to schedule appointments one staff member at a time. Any personnel (teachers, health, guidance, or administrative staff) in the Staff File can be scheduled for appointments using the Staff: Appointments view. Prerequisites for Staff View Appointment Scheduling See Process for Appointment Scheduling. Accessing the Staff: Appointments View 1. Choose File, Staff on the menu bar, select a staff member and click OK or press Enter. 2. Select the Appointments view. Reading the Staff: Appointments View When this view is initially displayed, the Student column does not display. Resize the window if you want to see the Student column. Fields in the Staff: Appointments View Staff Header Info Add Appointments The selected teacher's name, ID, room number, and phone display. These fields cannot be edited in this view. Used to enter individual appointments. Appointment Scheduling 9

14 Fields in the Staff: Appointments View Delete Appointments Used to delete the selected appointment. Functions Date Start End Contact Mark Location Topic Used to select: Limit View to One Day -- Useful when editing appointments for a particular conference period day. Use to limit the appointments displayed to those on a given date; if the view has been limited, Show All Appointments also appears on the Functions list. The display resets to Show All Appointments if you switch to another view or if the Staff window is closed. Schedule Appointments for this Teacher -- Use to schedule appointments with this teacher's homeroom roster students' parents. Only schedules appointments for homeroom students -- can't be used for non-homeroom appointments. The appointment date appears in this field. To set an appointment for another day, click the list arrow at the end of this field and select the appropriate day from the calendar. The time the appointment is to start. The time the appointment is to end (may include padding to allow passing between appointments for parents or organization time for the teacher). Displays either: When using Add Appointment -- The name you typed when creating the appointment (may be left blank). When using Assign Appointments By Homeroom -- The name of the adult/parent of the homeroom student with whom the appointment is scheduled (highest priority, Lives With adult/parent listed in the Student: Phones and Addresses view). For information about using this feature see Marking and Unmarking Appointments. When created using: When using Add Appointment -- May be marked as they are created or later in the Staff: Appointments view. When using Assign Appointments By Homeroom -- Automatically marked at creation but editable in the Staff: Appointments view. When created using: When using Appointment -- Location is entered during creation; may be edited in the Staff: Appointments view. When using Appointments By Homeroom -- Defaults to the instructor's room number; may be edited in the Staff: Appointments view. Topic of appointment entered when the appointment was created. 10 Appointment Scheduling

15 Fields in the Staff: Appointments View Student [Optional] If you resize the window to make it wider, you can see the name of the homeroom student who is the subject of the conference. When you display any Staff's Appointments view, displayed appointments are in date and time order. If you add appointment(s) or click the Start/End column headings, the proper date/time sort is lost. To restore the appointments to date/time order, move to another teacher or view and then return. Scheduling Appointments - Staff File Adding a Single Appointment for a Staff Member Use this procedure to: Schedule appointments for anyone in the Staff file one student at a time. Schedule a non-student meeting (e.g., the principal, another teacher, or a committee). Block a teacher's time as unavailable to the Appointment Assignment utility allowing for personal appointments such as dentist appointments, meetings, or commitments to supervise after school activities. Schedule a prearranged parent/teacher conference (e.g., Mrs. Maynard called and wants a 2:30 P.M. appointment). When adding single appointments, it is possible to add two appointments for the same time period; it is not possible to check for siblings and make contiguous appointments for them. 1. Choose File, Staff on the menu bar and change to the Appointments view. 2. Click Add Appointment. 3. A dialog prompts you to indicate if the appointment is with a student. A student appointment is one that is scheduled between the teacher and the homeroom student's highest priority, Lives With parent. Select one of the following: Yes -- The student search dialog appears; select a student. The Add Appointment dialog appears with the student's parent/guardian in the Contact field. In the Appointments view (if widened) the student's name will appear in the Student column. No -- The Add Appointments dialog appears with the Contact field blank. In the Appointments view (if widened) there will be no student's name in the Student column. Appointment Scheduling 11

16 4. Establish the specifications. Fields in the Add Appointments Dialog Date Today's date appears by default. Select the appropriate appointment date. If setting up appointments while students are Preenrolled during the summer, set the Report Date field in the Configuration file to a date within the coming school year (Setup, General, Configuration, Report Date field). Start Time End Time Contact Topic Enter the time the appointment is to start. You may type numbers and A or P only, the time is automatically formatted when you press Enter or click OK. Enter the time the appointment is to end, as described above. The program will not allow the entry of an ending time that is earlier than the starting time. It is useful to include a few minutes of padding; this allows parents time for passing between appointments and gives the teacher organization time between appointments. For non-student appointments, type the contact name or leave blank, as appropriate. If you identified this as a student appointment and selected a student, the appropriate adult/parent appears in this field (highest priority Lives With adult/parent listed in the Student: Phones and Addresses view). Enter text that describes the purpose of the appointment (e.g., Parent Conferences). Keep it brief and descriptive; this title will be displayed in the Staff: Appointments view and prints on reports and letters. 12 Appointment Scheduling

17 Fields in the Add Appointments Dialog Location Marked Enter the location. May be a room number or other entry. Click to mark or unmark the appointment. For information about using this feature see Marking and Unmarking Appointments. 5. When finished, click OK. The Staff: Appointments view opens with the new appointment listed. If the newly added appointment(s) display, but you suspect others are missing, click Functions. If Show All Appointments appears on the function list, the display has been limited to a particular day. Select Show All Appointments to clear the day limit and display all appointments (or move to another teacher or view and then return). If you add appointments or click the Start/End column headings, the proper date/time sort for the appointments is lost. To restore the displayed appointments to date/time order, move to another teacher or view and then return. Scheduling Appointments by Homeroom in the Staff: Appointments View Use this procedure to schedule appointments for a homeroom teacher and the parent of each student in the teacher's homeroom roster. This utility only schedules appointments for homeroom students -- it can't be used for non-homeroom appointments. Each student must have at least one relationship flagged as Lives With or they will be skipped by this utility. 1. Choose File, Staff on the menu bar and change to the Appointments view. 2. Click Functions. Appointment Scheduling 13

18 3. Select Schedule Appointments for this Teacher and click OK. Max. Appointments does not display until you click the conference length field or add a date/time. 4. Establish the specifications. Fields in the Assign Appointments by Homeroom Dialog Add Date/Time Enter the date and the time range available for appointment scheduling. Repeat until all the available meeting times have been entered. Estimate the amount of time needed based on the number of students in the roster and the length of each conference. For example, given 21 students in a homeroom and a conference length of 20 minutes, 8 hours are required to accommodate all of the appointments. The conference period could consist of two days, from 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. each day (or any other combination totaling 8 hours). Del Date/Time Select the Date/Time you wish to delete and confirm your intention. 14 Appointment Scheduling

19 Fields in the Assign Appointments by Homeroom Dialog Max Appointments Max. Appointments shows how many appointments of the specified length can be scheduled given the Dates/Times entered. Max. Appointments does not display until you click/edit the conference length field or add a date/time; it does not calculate until you add at least one Date/Time. As you add Date/Time entries or adjust the conference length, the maximum number of appointments possible recalculates. Remember that teachers may have blocked times for which they may be unavailable. Given the number of students to be scheduled You may adjust the Conference (Length) minutes until you have the maximum time for each student. You may add dates/times until you have just enough possible appointments to accommodate each student. Instructor Appointment Length (in minutes) Topic Title The name of the teacher whose homeroom is to be scheduled for appointments. This field cannot be edited when accessed from the Staff: Appointments view. Enter the length of time, in minutes, of each conference; the default is 20 minutes. Enter text that describes the purpose of the appointment (e.g., Parent Conferences). Keep it brief and descriptive; this title is displayed in the Staff: Appointments view and printed on reports and letters. The appointment topics cannot be attached to this dialog, but the appointment topics entered should reflect the topics in your appointment topics validation table. If they do not, the new topic added here is added to the topics validation table; this may result in multiple, inconsistent topics. 5. When finished, click OK. 6. When the Schoolmaster confirmation appears, click OK. Few, if any, students should be unscheduled unless a teacher has blocked significant time as unavailable for appointments. If you have entered sufficient Appointment Scheduling 15

20 Date/Times to schedule the number of students in the roster, no one should be listed as unscheduled. 7. The Staff: Appointments view displays the appointments just scheduled. If the newly added appointment(s) display, but you suspect others are missing, click Functions. If Show All Appointments appears on the function list, the display has been limited to a particular day. Select Show All Appointments to clear the day limit and display all appointments (or move to another view and then return). If you add appointments or click the Start/End column headings, the proper date/time sort for the appointments may be lost. To restore the displayed appointments to date/time order, move to another teacher or view and then return. Working with Scheduled Appointments Use the Staff: Appointments view to display and edit scheduled appointments. Viewing Appointments Scheduled for a Specific Date If you schedule new appointments while the view is restricted, the new appointments appear even if for a different date, but other appointments for the new date do not. Since this makes it is easy to be mislead into thinking there are no conflicting appointments, it is best to return to displaying all appointments before adding new appointments. All of the teachers' appointments are listed when you open the Staff: Appointments view. If you are editing appointments, it may be useful to view only the appointments for the day are editing. The following function restricts the displayed appointments only until you select the Show All Appointments function, select another view and then return, or close the Staff window. Remember that if you require information from some other Staff view, you may open another Staff window and select that view so that you retain the date restriction in the Appointments view. 1. Choose File, Staff on the menu bar and change to the Appointments view. 2. Click Functions. 16 Appointment Scheduling

21 3. Select Limit View to One Day and click OK to open the Limit View to One Day dialog. 4. The date defaults to the current date. Select the appropriate date (type a date or click the arrow and select the date using the calendar). 5. Click OK. The Staff: Appointments view displays only the appointments scheduled for the date you selected. 6. When you want to see all appointments again, click Functions, Show All Appointments (or select another view/close the Staff window and then return). Using Marked Appointments Marking and Unmarking Appointments In the Marked column of the Staff: Appointments view, an X indicates marked appointments. Appointments that are scheduled using Assign Appointments By Homeroom are automatically marked. Appointments scheduled using Add Appointment may or may not be marked when they are created. You may use the mark option For your own purposes. For example, mark appointments to indicate that the appointment may need rescheduling, or that the student has sibling in school and may have contiguous appointments scheduled. To select appointments using a Filter for use in reports or listings (see Creating a Filter to Select Marked or Unmarked Appointments). To make changes to many appointments using the Mass Change utility (see Using Marked Appointments and Mass Change). With the Delete Appointments utility limited to delete only marked records (see Deleting Multiple Appointments -- Purge versus Delete). Creating a Filter to Select Marked or Unmarked Appointments 1. Choose Setup, Report, Filters. 2. Click Add. Appointment Scheduling 17

22 3. In the File field, select Appointments. 4. Type an appropriate title (e.g., Unmarked Appointments or Mark Appointments). 5. Click OK. 6. Click Add Expression. Edit fields as follows: Set Fields as Follows in the Mass Change Dialog Choose Item Operator Value Select Marked Leave as Equal To. Select the appropriate value for the filter you are building. False -- To filter for unmarked appointments. True -- To filter for marked appointments. 7. Click OK. Marked Appointments and Mass Change You can use Mass Change and marked/unmarked appointments to edit many appointments quickly. If, after scheduling appointments, you find the Topic description is too long to fit reports/listings you can selectively change them. You can change the Location to replace all the teacher's room numbers (automatically supplied by Assign Appointments By Homeroom) with a common location. Or, you can change all marked appointments to unmarked or vice versa. Changing Appointments' Marked Status Using Mass Change Use these settings to change the Mark status for all or selected appointments to Yes or No. 1. Choose Utility, Mass Change. 2. Establish the settings. Set Fields as Follows in the Mass Change Dialog File Item to Change Sequence Select Appointments Select Marked Leave the sequence as either Student or Staff to change all appointments or click Sequence and Appointment Range to set a Date Range for the appointments to be changed. You may also apply any appointment filters you have created to select specific appointments. New Value Type Yes -- To check/mark appointments Type No -- To uncheck/unmark appointments. 3. Click OK then click Change All to proceed with the change. 18 Appointment Scheduling

23 Changing Marked Appointments' Fields Using Mass Change Use this example to set up Mass Change to edit any of the appointment fields. 1. Mark the appointments you wish to give a new topic. 2. Choose Utility, Mass Change. 3. Establish the settings. Set Fields as Follows in the Mass Change Dialog File Item to Change Sequence New Value Select Appointments Select Topic (or your choice of the items). Click Sequence, Filter and select the Marked Appointment filter (if not yet created, see Creating a Filter to Select Marked or Unmarked Appointments). Type the topic you wish to substitute for any existing topic. 4. Click OK, then click Change All to proceed with the change for all marked appointments or view each appointment and use the Skip/Change buttons. Deleting Appointments Deleting an Appointment Select any appointment and click Delete Appointment to delete any appointment that has been scheduled. See Also: Purge Appointments (from the System Manager Reference manual) Deleting Multiple Appointments To delete all existing appointments use Purge Appointments from the End of Year Procedures. Use this utility to delete selected appointments. You may select specific staff, set a particular date range, and/or delete only Marked appointments. 1. To delete selected appointments choose Utility, Delete Records from the menu bar. Appointment Scheduling 19

24 2. When the warning message appears, click Continue to access the Setup dialog. 3. Establish the specifications. Fields in the Delete Appointments Dialog Sequence Date Range Limit to Marked Appointments Auto-save Click to set a sequence; includes the options to select a staff range (begin at Adam and end at Smith), select particular staff, or apply a filter. Establish the starting and ending date range or select a reporting period. Check to delete only Marked appointments satisfying the date range and sequence settings. Check this box to save these settings for reuse when next this utility is run. 4. Click Begin. 5. Click Continue to confirm your intention and delete qualifying appointments or Cancel to abort. 20 Appointment Scheduling

25 Chapter 3 - Appointment Assignment Utility The office staff uses the Appointment Assignment Utility to schedule parent/teacher appointments for all homeroom teachers; schedules all students in the roster of each homeroom. While creating appointments, the utility will identify siblings and schedule contiguous appointments for them when possible. Students must have at least one relationship flagged as Lives With or they will be skipped by this utility. Prerequisites for the Appointment Assignment Utility See Process for Appointment Scheduling. Scheduling Appointments for Selected Homeroom Teachers Students must have at least one relationship flagged as Lives With or they will be skipped by this utility. The dialog used for this utility is identical to that accessed via the Functions button in the Staff: Appointments view with one important difference; it allows you to select multiple teachers and schedule the same appointment for each instructor and the parents/adults of all students in their homeroom roster. While creating appointments, the utility will identify siblings and schedule contiguous appointments for them when possible. Remember, if setting up appointments while students are Preenrolled during the summer, set the Report Date field in the Configuration file to a date within the coming school year (Setup, General, Configuration, Report Date field). 1. Choose Utility, Appointment Assignment from the menu bar to open the Assign Appointments by Homeroom dialog. Max. Appointments does not display until you click the conference length field or add a date/time. 2. Click Instructors to open the Instructors to Assign window. 3. Select one or more teachers for whom you want to schedule appointments. Non-homeroom teachers may appear and be selected, but the utility will not Appointment Scheduling 21

26 schedule appointments for them; therefore, you may click Select All to schedule all homeroom teachers without selecting each one. To select several teachers, press and hold the Ctrl key while you click to select the desired names (Macintosh use the Command key, ). 4. Click OK to return to the Assign Appointments by Homeroom dialog. 5. Establish the remaining specifications Fields in the Assign Appointments by Homeroom Dialog Add Date/Time Enter the date and the time range available for appointment scheduling. Repeat until all the available meeting times have been entered. If breaks are required (e.g., lunch), enter begin and end times that do not include the break period(s). For example, you might enter 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM, skip 11 to noon for lunch, enter 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM, skip 4 to 5 for a break, and enter 5:00 PM to 7:00PM. Your appointments would them accommodate both teacher breaks and working parents' schedules. Estimate the amount of time needed based on the number of students in the usual roster and the length of each conference. For example, given 21 students in a homeroom and a conference length of 20 minutes, 8 hours are required to accommodate all of the appointments. The conference period could consist of two days, from 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. each day (or any other combination totaling 8 hours). Del Date/Time Max Appointments Select the Date/Time you wish to delete and confirm your intention. Max. Appointments shows how many appointments of the specified length can be scheduled given the Dates/Times entered. Max. Appointments does not display until you click/edit the conference length field or add a date/time; it does not calculate until you add at least one Date/Time. As you add Date/Time entries or adjust the conference length, the maximum number of appointments possible recalculates. Remember that some teachers may have blocked times as unavailable for appointments. Given the number of students to be scheduled You may adjust the Conference (Length) minutes until you have the maximum time for each student. You may add dates/times until you have just enough appointment times to accommodate each student. 22 Appointment Scheduling

27 Fields in the Assign Appointments by Homeroom Dialog Instructor See above. Conference (Length) Enter the length of time, in minutes, of each conference; the default is 20 minutes. Topic Title Enter text that describes the purpose of the appointment (e.g., Parent Conferences). Keep it brief and descriptive; this title will be displayed in the Staff: Appointments view and printed on reports and letters. The appointment topics validation table cannot be attached to this dialog, but the appointment topics entered should reflect the topics in your appointment topics validation table. If they do not, the new topic added here is added to the topics validation table; this may result in multiple, inconsistent topics. 6. When finished, click OK. 7. The Schoolmaster confirmation appears, displaying the number of scheduled and unscheduled appointments. Click OK. 8. If there were unscheduled appointments, use the Unscheduled Student Listing and the Staff: Appointments view to schedule them. If you want to delete these appointments and begin again, see Deleting Multiple Appointments -- Purge versus Delete. If you want to edit fields for all these appointments see Using Marked Appointments and Mass Change. Appointment Scheduling 23

28 24 Appointment Scheduling Information in this printed documentation is supplemental and

29 Chapter 4 - Appointment Listings Use this component of Appointment Scheduling to produce listings of Unscheduled Students -- After running the appointment assignment utility or entering appointments in the Staff: Appointments view, use this listing to ensure that none of the students requiring appointments have been missed. Staff Appointments -- Prints a list of each staff's appointments with students. Use this listing to allow staff to review and revise proposed appointments. Student Appointments -- Prints each student's appointment(s) with teachers. This list is particularly helpful if parents are calling to revise proposed appointment times. Unscheduled Students Listing Remember, if working with appointments while students are Preenrolled during the summer, set the Report Date field in the Configuration file to a date within the coming school year (Setup, General, Configuration, Report Date field). This listing checks to see if an appointment exists, within the date range you specify, for all students enrolled as of the current date (or the Report Date set in the Configuration file). If no appointment exists, the student's name, grade level, gender, and class code are reported. Printing the Unscheduled Student Listing 1. Choose Report, Appointments, Unscheduled Students from the menu bar to open the Unscheduled Appointments Listing Setup. Appointment Scheduling 25

30 2. Establish the specifications. Unscheduled Students Listing Setup Sequence Date Range Click Sequence, select the desired sequence from the listed options, and apply filters, if desired. Establish the starting and ending dates or select a reporting period. To limit the listing to one day, enter the same date for both starting and ending dates. Appointments dated after the End date will not be listed. Auto-save Check this box to retain these settings when the listing is printed. 3. Click Print and choose the output destination. Staff Appointments Listing This listing checks to see if an appointment exists, within the date range you specify, for all specified staff (not limited to homeroom teachers). If any appointment(s) exist, the date, time, and available information about the adult, student, and topic are reported. Note that in the example below, the 11 AM to 1 PM appointment is a non-student appointment and displays no student name or topic. The DDS Appointment note in the Adult column was entered in the Contact field of the Add Appointment dialog. 26 Appointment Scheduling

31 Printing the Staff Appointments Listing 1. Choose Report, Appointments, Listing by Staff to open the Staff Appointment Listing Setup dialog. 2. Establish the specifications. Staff Appointments Listing Setup Sequence Date Range Click Sequence to open the Staff Sequence dialog. Select the desired sequence from the listed options. Establish the starting and ending dates or select a reporting period. To limit the listing to one day, enter the same date for both starting and ending dates. Appointments dated after the End date will not be listed. Page Break on Date Auto-save Check this box to print the staff's appointments for each day on separate pages. Leave this box blank if you want the appointments for multiple days on the same page. Check this box to save these settings when the listing is printed. 3. Click Print and choose the output destination. Student Appointments Listing This listing checks to see if an appointment exists, within the date range you specify, for all students (not limited to homerooms or by enrollment status). If any appointment(s) exists, the student's name, ID, date, time, instructor, and location are reported; multiple appointments for one student are in date/time order. This list is particularly helpful when if parents are calling to revise proposed appointment times or when checking to see if students have duplicate appointments. Note the circled appointments in the sample listing below; this student has two appointments on the same day, with the same instructor. Most probably, this requires a correction -- unless the staff intentionally created two separate appointments (e.g., divorced parents of a single student want separate appointments). Appointment Scheduling 27

32 Printing the Student Appointments Listing 1. Choose Report, Appointments, Listing by Student to open the Student Appointments Listing Setup. 2. Establish the specifications. Student Appointments Listing Setup Sequence Instructors Date Range Click Sequence to open the Student Sequence dialog. Select the desired sequence from the listed options. Select All to include any staff with appointments within the date range or select appropriate staff. Establish the starting and ending dates or select a reporting period. To limit the listing to one day, enter the same date for both starting and ending dates. Appointments dated after the End date will not be listed. Auto-save Check this box to save these settings when the listing is printed. 3. Click Print and choose the output destination. 28 Appointment Scheduling

33 Chapter 5 - Appointment Letters For more information about working with letters, see the Basic Procedures manual). Printing appointment letters is one of the last steps in preparing for parent/teacher conferences. Use appointment letters to notify parents of the planned appointment schedule. Although the Appointment Scheduler will schedule appointments for members of the same household back to back (if possible), separate letters will be printed for each household member. Parents will receive one letter for each child. The appointment letter automatically includes the date the letter is printed, primary adult/parent name(s) and address, name of the student, and appointment details including topic, staff, date, time, and location. The remaining text is supplied by the letter layout identified in the setup dialog. At some time before the letters are to be printed, Create one or more letter layouts containing appropriate text for the appointments you are likely to schedule (see Sample Appointment Letter and Layout). Create letter specifications on the Report, Appointments menu (Adding Appointment Letter Specifications). Print the letters so that you can verify that each letter correctly displays appointment(s) and names (see Printing and Verifying Appointment Letters). Prerequisites for Appointment Letters Complete all appointment setup activities (see Setup for Appointment Scheduling). Schedule appointments and complete teacher requested adjustments. Print the Unscheduled Students Listing and add appointments for any students identified as unscheduled. Teachers preview/adjust their schedules and/or approve the Staff Appointments Listing report. The Student Appointments Listing is checked and any duplicate appointments are resolved. Sample Appointment Letter and Layout The appointment letter automatically includes the date the letter is printed, primary adult/parent name(s) and address, name of the student, and appointment details including topic, staff, date, time, and location. The remaining text is supplied by the letter layout identified in the setup dialog. Appointment Scheduling 29

34 The letter layout below was used to create the letter sample above. Creating Appointment Letters Creating the Appointment Letter Layout 1. Choose Setup, Report, Letter Layouts from the menu and press Enter or click OK. 2. Select the Letter Body view. 30 Appointment Scheduling

35 3. Choose Task, Add Letter from the menu bar to open the Add Letter dialog. 4. Type a short letter layout code, a descriptive title, and select Appointment as Type (may also be selected in the Letter Body view as shown below). 5. Click OK to return to the Letter Body view. 6. In the Type field, select Appointment. 7. Enter the text and parent or student data items required. As you type, the words will automatically wrap from one line to the next. To force the end of a line and begin a new paragraph, press Enter/Return twice. Appointment Scheduling 31

36 Examples of Letter Text in the Letter Body Do not add Addresses Salutation The recipient's address is automatically added to the letter during the printing process. The school's address can be included or suppressed when the letter is printed. Begin the letter with the salutation Dear. Press the space bar once and click Insert Adult Item. Choose Address:Mailing Title and click OK to insert: PAR{Address:Mailing Title}. PAR refers to the adult/parent file. The expression directs the computer to fetch the Mailing Title from the Adult/Parent file. The foregoing will suffice if every primary parent (Priority = 1 and Lives With is checked) has a mailing title. If not, adjust the salutation so the program will substitute the formal name where the mailing title is blank. Change the salutation entry to exactly match this: PAR{=if([Address:Mailing Title]!="", [Address:Mailing Title], [Name:Formal])} This expression directs the program to check the mailing title. If the mailing title is not blank (!= " "), print the mailing title; otherwise, print the formal name. Place a semi-colon at the end of the salutation. Letter Body Press Enter to skip a line and begin typing the letter text as you would in a word processor. To insert the student's name, click Insert Student Item. Select Name:First and click OK. Insert a space and finish the letter text. If the Preferred Name field is often used, establish a conditional expression to use instead of the first name if available. Change the student name entry to exactly match this: STU{=if([Name:Preferred]!="",[Name:Preferred],[Name:First])} You may also refer to the student's homeroom teacher by name clicking Insert Student Item, Homeroom, Show Homeroom Items, Teacher, Show Teacher Items, Name: Formal. The entry that results looks like this: STU{Homeroom > Teacher > Name:Formal} Closing Type a closing as you would with a standard business letter. 8. When the Letter Body is complete, change the view to Letter Parameters. 32 Appointment Scheduling

37 9. Establish the specifications. General Output Options Hide School Address/Date Print Letter Body Print Current Schedule Check this box to exclude the school's address and the letter date from the output. Check this box to include the letter body in the output. Not available in Appointment letters. Attendance Output Options Print Attendance Profile Print Attendance Summary Guidance Record to Post Not available in Appointment letters. Not available in Appointment letters. Not available in Appointment letters. 10. Close Letter Layouts. Appointment Scheduling 33

38 Adding Appointment Letter Specifications 1. Choose Report, Appointment, Letter from the menu bar to open the Letters report window. 2. Complete one of the following: To verify or change the settings -- Select the appropriate version from the list and click Edit. To access a blank setup dialog -- Click Add, type a new name, and click OK. To name a new version based on existing settings -- Select a version with similar settings to those you need, click Edit, click Save As, type a name, and click OK. To change the name of an existing version -- Select a version, click Rename, type a new name, and click OK. 34 Appointment Scheduling

39 3. Make selections for the following options. Letter Setup Options Sequence Date Range Topics Letter to Print Paper Type Print Cover Sheet Auto-Save For appointment letters, the By Name or By Homeroom sequence is usually the best. Letters will be generated for students who have appointments scheduled within the date range and printed in the order of the selected sequence. Establish the starting and ending dates for attendance letters. The student attendance profile is examined only for this date range. For general letters, enter the same date for the starting and ending dates. Select one or more appointment topics. Only appointments with the selected topic that fall within the given date range will print. Select the letter format you want to attach to this report. Select the type of paper that the letters will print on. School Letterhead -- This option is to be used with letterhead stationery. The school name and address do not print. Plain Paper -- The school name, address, and phone number are printed at the top of the first page of each letter. The letter is formatted so that the home address will show through a #10 window envelope. Or you may check this option to print an 8.5x11 cover sheet with return address and home address; it may be folded and fastened around the letter for distribution. Each cover sheet precedes its matching letter. Check this box to save these settings when the listing is printed. 4. Click Print and choose the output destination. Printing and Verifying Appointment Letters Print and check the letters carefully. Verify that each letter correctly displays appointment(s) and names. Check against the Student and Staff Listings to confirm that all appropriate letters have been printed. 1. Choose Report, Appointment, Letter from the menu bar to open the Letters report window. Appointment Scheduling 35

40 2. Select the proper specifications set. 3. You may click Print or click Edit to confirm the Date Range and other settings, then click Print. 4. Choose the output destination. The output of the letter should resemble the example below: 36 Appointment Scheduling