MarkBook - Edit Names Screen

    MarkBook^Ž     section 4-2

Edit Student Information
Reach this screen from MarkBook's Main Operating Screen, section 3-1, by clicking the Class button and then clicking the Edit Names button in the upper right of this image. Use this Edit Names screen to edit/add/delete student information. Use the Timetables/Lockers button to add/view locker locations and timetable data.

On this sample screen is a fictitious class. The teacher wishes to alter information about one student and has clicked on that student's name in the list window at the center. The student's name has appeared near the top left with the field names below it. Select the field to be altered using your mouse and add or re-type the new information. Press your Enter or Tab key to save the change on screen and click Save to save any edits to your class data file. MarkBook's Edit Names Screen

To delete a student, highlight the name in the list left using a mouse click (Milli Metre is currently highlighted), and then click on the Delete Name button at the bottom center. Add additional information about given students in the Miscellaneous field as in the example. Use the Hide button to prevent others from seeing this data while looking at your screen.

Access several other screens directly from here. Add Names, section 4-1, using the button of that name. Bring back a student who was formerly in the class using the Undelete Names button. In this case, all previously-stored data (grades, attendance, etc.) will return when you undelete the student. If you have a split class (two or more years, grades, groups, or Mark Sets), attach selected students to each set using the Attach Names button. See section 4-3 for more information on Mark Sets. Create Email messages as in section 3-4. Print a chronological order Birthdays list if you have birth dates on this screen. If your school has a file for creating classes, as in section 4-4, use the Update from File button to compare your student data with a new fresh file.

Access the Anecdotal Notes screen described in section 3-3 using that button. Access the Seating screen, section 5-4 using that button. Print out a class list with selected entered data using the Print button.

Click the Back or Save button to return to the Main Operating Screen, section 3-1.

CODE NAMES

MarkBook users have the option of posting class achievement data in the classroom and on the Internet. To preserve anonymity, many teachers use student numbers. However, student numbers are not as anonymous as one would like - they're on every attendance form and are often posted in the school for other purposes. For this reason, some jurisdictions ban the use of student numbers when posting achievement data. To preserve confidentiality, use the Code Name field instead. Have students provide an anonymous name and their real name on a piece of paper (you could collect other information like Email addresses at the same time). Type this anonymous name into the Code Name field as in the above example with Red Eye. MarkBook will now display and print class reports with students sorted alphabetically by their code name. See section 8-7 for an example of a Code Name class report. The name will remain anonymous as long as the student keeps it that way.

When selecting code names, some students will try to slip in a name with a hidden meaning. It might be a gang affiliation, a nefarious character, or some other name with a hidden connotation unknown to you but recognized by classmates! Instead, restrict the name selection to something topical in your course. This may require a few minutes of research on each student's part. However, it's lots of fun! For instance, have students select names as follows

In an English class, chose the names of Shakespearian plays, or Shakespearian characters, or the names of Pulitzer Prize winners, etc.

In Biology, parts of the cell, English names of butterflies, Latin names of snakes, names of bones in the body, etc.

In History, names of living Third World presidents, names of deceased kings, names of important historical documents, etc.

In Geography, names of Himalayan peaks, rivers of Africa, types of rock, etc.

In Mathematics, names of great mathematicians, names of theorems, etc.

In boys Phys Ed, the names of sports, the names of sport equipment, or the names of influential female authors of the last half century. As a last resort, have them select the names of prominent athletes.

Whether the code names are 'Canis familiaris' or 'Margaret Laurence' or 'Othello' or 'Limestone' or 'Albert Einstein', they will sort alphabetically on code name reports. And, whatever name selection they make, you have the opportunity to change it at any time. Change all of the code names once a month if you wish. When doing so, remove all posted class reports with the old names so that students cannot use the data to re-identify each student's new code name.

FAKE NAMES

Some jurisdictions forbid the communicating of real class averages. This includes posting of data in a manner that enables someone to calculate that average. Some MarkBook users employ another clever trick that's lots of fun for both teachers and students. Add numerous 'fake' students into the class. If you add 15 fakes, give each a surname beginning with ZZ (ZZ1, ZZ2, ... ZZ15, etc.). This way, the 'real name' screens list these additional students at the end of the class alpha list. However, give them a code name in the same style as the real students. If this was done with the class above, the 35th student could be 'John ZZ1', the 36th could be 'Mary ZZ2', etc. As assessment data is entered, enter fake data for each ZZ student. However, give ZZ1 through ZZ3 very high marks making them competitive with the top students in the class. ZZ14 and ZZ15 are given terrible marks making them the worst performers in the class. The other ZZ students are given marks that scatter them throughout the academic order. Then, when a code name class report is posted, students have loads of fun guessing who is real and who is a fake. To generate a real report without the fakes, take a few seconds to delete the ZZ students with the delete button shown above. Or, use the Attach Names button to unattach the ZZ students from the class. Print the real report. Then, undelete or re-attach the fake students. All of their phony data returns with them.

This same 'fake students' trick works nicely on the Internet. MarkBook generates an HTML class report as described in section 8-10. The code name is the only identifier of each student on these web pages. Again, the HTML report sorts alphabetically by code name and scatters the fake students throughout the list. It's also possible to exclude selected individuals from the HTML report.

TIMETABLES / SCHEDULES / LOCKERS

MarkBook will import, record, store, and display locker and timetable data for every student in your class. This information will prove handy in a number of circumstances. Suppose Milli asks to visit her locker, is gone too long, and then claims her locker is in a distant hallway. But this screen says that Milli's locker is near room 111, just around the corner! Milli is late for Drama class nearly every day. She claims that her Phys Ed teacher doesn't give her enough time to change. But this screen says that Milli has lunch just before her Day 2, Period 4, Drama class! She doesn't even have Phys Ed on the same day as Drama! Or, Milli's parent calls wanting a text from Milli's locker while she is absent for a few more days. In this case, you could ask Mary Lee to retrieve the book or ask an administrator to do the same.

MarkBook's Locker & Timetable Information Screen

Import the Locker data from LockerManager^TM. In addition to its other functions, this software produces a whole-school data file specifically for MarkBook users. When you import the data, only those students in your class will appear. Otherwise, you will have to type in the data for each student. In this latter case, have them give you a piece of paper with the information on it. You might do this at the same time as you collect code names. See details on LockerManager under the Products tab at http://www.asyluminc.com.

Import timetables into MarkBook using the same SIS file used by your administrators to import timetables into LockerManager^TM. Your administrators will have this identical data on their Palm PDA as well. Or, type in the data line by line. If all of the students in this class have a nearly identical timetable, click the Apply to ALL Students button. Edit individuals' timetables and telephone numbers as necessary.

If using MarkBook CNX, these timetables will appear on the Palm^Ž OS or Pocket PC handheld as described in section 2-3.

INDIVIDUAL COURSE CODES
Some classes, such as co-operative education classes and technology classes, have each student taking different courses. Technology classes often have multiple courses running parallel in a single classroom. Co-op classes often start out as a single class but new course codes are assigned part way through the term. If the MarkBook user is planning to submit report card data electronically as in section 11, and each student is in a separate course, the Individual Course Code feature of MarkBook enables a teacher to accommodate that electronic submission just as if all students were taking the same course.

To use individual course codes, create the class with all students in it. Then, click on Class in the upper menu bar and select Individual Course Codes to get the following screen. At the top, chose whether these codes apply to a single Mark Set or whether they apply to Combined Mark Sets. The Master Code may have been used to import the class at the beginning of the term. Click in the second column and the cell will turn blue. Type the assigned code and section, and push Enter. When complete, click Back. Entered once, MarkBook will remember each individual code and submit course data for each student using that code instead of the Master Code. Return to this screen to edit codes at any time. If individual course codes and sections have already been assigned in another Mark Set for this class, click on the Copy Codes from cell to move these into this Mark Set.

Manual: go to section 4-3 to see why and how to create Mark Sets.