Supply Teachers & Electronic Registration

[pete]

How do you handle it?

 

We use PARS here, mainly accessed via terminal server & thin clients. To create a Supply Teacher PARS user, I have to create an account in SIMS, give the appropriate permissions in PARS and then create a restricted domain account so they can log into the ts.

 

While typing this, I've been thinking about handing them a pda with the days lessons downloaded into it and them dropping it back into the school administrators office to be synced. The downside is that the registers of those classes aren't synched as they happen.

[ConTheITGuy]

I too have this very same issue! We were thinking about printing a sheet off with instructions (I had already produced a sheet for the staff) with a box for a temp password for a user such as "supply1". Giving them this in the morning when they arrive and changing the password every couple of days or so, or when they finish, we tend to use a lot of supply and have the same people in for a few days or more at a time.

 

Obviously a pretty rubbish solution, writing passwords down, bits of paper for the kids to pick up - but the only one we've come up with so far

 

I will be watching this thread with interest

 

Andy

[Geoff]

The downside is that the registers of those classes aren't synched as they happen.

 

Is this a problem? Is there a need for everything to be up to date instantly?

[Halfmad]

The council here has made it's own custom tracking and monitoring system for reports and electronic registration. No idea how it'll work with supply teachers though. Each teacher has classes assigned to them and can't access anyone elses so obviously this could cause problems..

 

Paper and pen I'm guessing is the only real solution!

[bossman]

All our staff use Class registration at every lesson no probs, when a supply teacher(s)comes in we have five accounts setup so they can have access to the Sims registration and because they can search for the teacher they are covering within lesson register they can quickly and i mean quickly take the register. They are given a password to the account when they arrive and passwords are changed regularly. So far have not met up with any problems.

[pete]

Is this a problem? Is there a need for everything to be up to date instantly?

 

Kind of. One of the reasons we use electronic registers is to take a lesson-by-lesson register. For EMAs (educational maintenance allowance payments), the school has to say that $sixth_former was in the lessons they should be and not skiving off. If we track them lesson-by-lesson they can be driven from the common room to the appropriate lesson after an ear-bashing from the head of 6th form.

 

For the rest of the school it's handy to keep an eye on truancy (although that's admittedly a very rare occurance here).

[john]

Ours just give the details to someone thats logged on and ask them to do it, or give it on a bit of paper to a member of SMT who put it in for them.

[Kained]

We give a class list to the suplly teacher they then fill that in and bring it down to a member of administration staff or the attendance monitor

[kylewilliamson]

How long would it take for a supply teacher to demolish said PDA?

 

The answer perhaps is for PARS to support USB Keys or a biometric option. Supply teacher comes in. Supply teacher swipes pad on desk. Supply teacher than able to log in to pars.

 

Kyle

[Ric_]

@kylewilliamson: The answer is to use a non-computer-based system where the teacher is merely given a card to swipe (e.g. NEDAP PreAbXS).

 

Guess what we have

 

The only other solution would be to have some teachers in your database called supply1 - supplyN with associated restricted user accounts.

 

As for EMA... why chase the kids out of the common room? If they don't go to class, they don't get paid that week... teaches them responsibility!

[kylewilliamson]

Do the kids loose the cards?

[Geoff]

Presumably, attaching a 'replacement cost' would discourage them from 'losing' the cards.

[kylewilliamson]

The other disadvantage I thought of is what 'pete' mentioned above - the data isnt live.

 

I assume something along this line would work :-

 

a touchscreen with a physical lock on every classroom desk. put in key. turn on. mark kids absent or present.

i

Kyle

[kylewilliamson]

*every teachers desk

 

I suppose the other answer is to try wherever possible to have 'supply attached to the school' ie: local supply rather than agencies

 

Kyle

[Ric_]

Do the kids loose the cards?

 

They lose them, eat them and generally destroy them.

 

Forget the card and they get a detention... lose the card and they cough up £5

 

Temporary cards are easily assigned.

[Jaimon]

Hi,

 

Most of the e-registration systems have this problem with Supply and Cover Teachers , because they don't integrate with a Cover module. Ideally, when you assign a supply teacher to cover for your teacher, the e-registration system should pick it up. School2000 offers such a solution, which will sync with Sims.net and CMIS and comes with a Cover module. If you are using Nova-T Cover module, you wouldn't need any training on School2000's Cover 8O . And you can give the supply teacher a Palm PDA, Pocket PC or a Laptop for registration. Palm works offline, so the teachers would need to synchronize using a serial Dock or InfraRed. Pocket PC, Intranet and PC application are online. So no need to sync. Supply teachers can also make use of our e-registration by Photo Grid, where they can click on each student's photo to register attendance. A browser based e-registration demo is available on http://www.school2000.co.uk

 

More information can be found from http://www.school2000.co.uk/reports.htm

 

HTH

 

Jaimon Mathew

[kylewilliamson]

All goods points, but they still dont answer the problem we seem to have

 

* Something that takes less than 25 seconds to train on

* Something that is secure, but doesnt need a password

* Something that can't be demolished

* Something that is live

* Something that cant be lost (student cards, etc)

 

As it happens, we use CMIS & ePortal. For Cover, when internal staff are on cover, it does assign them as being on cover for registration.

 

PARS has a cover module too, but again ,the problems above come into effect.

 

Kyle