Plan Manual for Teacher's Partner

If you are new to Teacher’s Partner then there are a few things to keep in mind about planning using a database tool. First of all there may seem to be a lot of steps and rules about creating units and subtasks – cutting and pasting into a word processor is easier, more intuitive and in some cases faster. However rules and steps are necessary in order for you to be able to manage and organize all of the information. If all you need to do is create a subtask worksheet for students then you might be able to do it faster in a Word Processor than you can using Teacher’s Partner. But if you want to update your long range plans, create a class tracking sheet, track the expectations that were covered, then Teacher’s Partner will save you quite a bit of time. Furthermore, the plans you create will become the templates for entering Gradebook information and generating report card marks and comments.

Export Plans form Teacher’s Partner

Plan > Export Plans and Marks
Select the Subtasks you want to export
Click on the “Exports Marks as Well” box if you want marks exported.
Click on the “Export” button.
Select the location and name for the file. Click on the “Export” button.

Notes: Plan files have a unique *.pln extension. You can same a number of subtasks to a floppy disk, but the number is limited to the 1.4 meg size of a floppy.

Import Plans Created with TP

Plan > Import Plans and Marks
Click on the button “Import Teacher’s Partner Plan File”
Find and Select File and click on “Import”
Follow the steps to import desired subtasks (click on import unit details)

Notes: Teachers can import both plans and marks for a unit. Files can be saved to and imported from any drive location.

During the import process you can import one subtask at a time, or you can choose to import all subtasks at once. If there are marks and unit details then click on the checkmark to import that data as well. You cannot import any subtask if you already have a subtask with the same name. To do so you must first either change the name of the new subtask, or delete the old subtask.

Import Plans Created with Planner

Open the original file with FileMaker. Export the file as a TAB file (all fields, windows format).
Start Teacher’s Partner > Plan > Import Plans and Marks > Import Curriculum …
Select the main grade and subject.
Follow the steps to import desired subtasks (click on import unit details).

Notes: The ministry has paid to have a number of units created with the Planner. Many teachers have told us that they prefer to use Teacher’s Partner instead of the Planner because of simplicity and because of the marking and reporting features in Teacher’s Partner.

You must import one subtask at a time. After you import you can go to unit details. FileMaker Pro sometimes includes non standard line separators when it exports to text files. You may need to tidy up (delete unwanted punctuation) in a few of the text boxes after you import to make your printouts look correct.

Add a New Unit

Plan > Unit Planner
Click on “Add a New Unit”
Type in unit name, grade, the month the unit will be started and an overall description of the unit
Click on “Save” and then add other units if desired.

Notes: Units are used to help organize and group your subtasks. Unit names for English, French, and Art programs are typically themes like “Adventure”, “Novel Study” or “Soccer”.

Unit names for other subjects such as Math and Science are often the name of the strands being covered such as “Measurement Term 1” or “Heat”.

When you create a unit you are asked to select a grade and subject, and you can only select one of each. This does not mean that you cannot create units for multiple grades or subjects. The selecting of a grade and subject is just for organizational purposes.

The month selection helps you organize your long range plans chronologically no matter what order you have entered the units.

The “Big Ideas” box optional part. Some boards like to refer to these as “Enduring Understandings”. Other boards simply them “Unit Overviews” or “Unit Descriptions”. Whatever they are called, this is where you summarize in as few words as possible what you expect students to gain from the unit.

Add a Unit Logo

Plan > Unit Planner
Select subtask and click on “Insert Logo”
Insert Clip Art or navigate to and select an existing image file (*.jpeg, *.gif,*.bmp)

Notes: Adding unit logos can make your printouts look a little more professional. Your students may find it easier to keep their notes organized if there are logos assigned to each unit.

The image that you select will appear on a number of printouts (e.g. subtask worksheets, long range plans). Try to select images that are simple in design.

Add Unit Details

Plan > Unit Planner
Select a Unit
You can fill information about
Click on “Find and Link Expectations” to select all expectations that will be covered during the unit
To print click on the Print button

Notes: Unit Details will allow you to enter more information about a unit. Some teachers will find this helpful in creating long range plans with more detailed information. There are boxes to enter information about Grade and Subject Information, Unit Length, Big Ideas, Teacher Reflections, Culminating Subtask, and Resources. It is a lot of work to fill in every one of these boxes so it is important to keep in mind that they are all optional. Whether you fill them in often depends on personal style and whether you need to share the unit with other educators. The boxes to enter the information are small, but by being small it is easier to see if all the boxes have been filled in. The default is to “View All” boxes. If you click on one “Big Ideas” button, the space for typing in Big Ideas increases and a spell check option appears.

You can also select all of the expectations that will be covered by this unit. Scroll down to the bottom of the form and uses the filters and drop down menus to find and select the expectations that will be addressed in the unit.

Add More Unit Details

Plan > Unit Planner
Select a Unit and click on “More Details” button
Fill in each of the boxes
To print click on the Print button

Notes: The more unit details is a opens a form that allows even more unit information to be recorded. You will be able to “Pre-assessment” information as well as assessment strategies. This form was design by a committee of consultants at the Near North District School Board.

Add Subtasks to a Unit

Plan > Subtask Writer 1
Use filters to find the unit
Click on the unit and then click “Add a New Subtask”
Type in the name of a subtask (and unit if necessary) and click on “Next”.
Select the term that the subtask will be completed and click on “Next”.
Click on the related strand.
Select an assessment type.
Select the skill categories that will be assessed.
Click on “Next”

Notes: If no unit is selected then the subtask is added under “No Theme”. Typically at the beginning of the year you enter all the units you plan on covering. Then as the year goes on you add subtask to those units as the units are covered. However, you don’t have to enter you units first. You can type in the name of a new unit in Subtask Writer 1 and it will be added to your list of units. Every subtask needs to have a unique name so don’t use a generic name like “project”. Instead name the subtask something more specific like “Adventure Project”.

If you select “Summative” as the assessment type the default weight of the skill categories to be assessed is 10. If formative is selected the weight is 1. If diagnostic is selected the weight is 0. If not assessed is selected then no skill categories appear under the “Assessed Skills and Knowledge” list.

The categories that are listed all the default ministry categories. For example in Math the 4 categories to choose from are “Problem Solving”, “Understanding Concepts”, “Applications”, and “Communication of Knowledge”. If you only plan on recording one mark for the subtask then select the category that the subtask addresses most. Some teachers like to assess according to their own defined categories (e.g. “Homework”, “Projects”, “Tests” etc.) After the subtask has been created you can change the categories assessed to one of these if you want.

Some teachers create a subtasks for every activity completed during the unit. Other teachers only create the subtasks that will be assessed.

Link Expectations to a Subtask

Plan > Subtask Writer 1
Select the subtask
Click on the button “Link Categories or Expectations to the Selected Subtask”
Using the Filters Select a Subject and a Strand
In the large list box under “Select Skills”, click on each expectation that is related to the subtask.
Click on the button “Relate”.
Click on the button to go back to Subtask Writer 1.

Notes: If you check off “Expectations - One at a time with Text Preview” you can select and view the whole text for the expectation. If you click on the “Assess” button instead of the “Relate” button then you will be able to assign a mark towards that expectation. However, as it is impossible to assess every expectation for each student (there are just too many), most teacher assess only the skill categories, not the individual expectations. Some teachers choose to assess and track how students perform on some of the really important expectations (e.g. “organizes information into paragraphs”).

The number under the blue “P” column represents the number of times the expectation has been covered in other subtasks. The “A” column shows the number of times the expectation has been assessed. The “BS” column shows the number of students who were “Below Standard (under a level 3)” the last time the expectation was assessed.

Link Other Categories to Assess in a Subtask

Plan > Subtask Writer 1
Select the subtask
Click on the button “Link Categories or Expectations to the Selected Subtask”
Using the Filters Select a Subject and a Strand
On the far right under where it says “What kind of skills do you want to select?” click “categories”.
In the large list box under “Select Skills”, click on each category you want to assess.
Click on the button “Assess”.
Click on the button to go back to Subtask Writer 1.

Note: For subjects that are on page two of the report cards you are only required to give one mark for the entire subject – regardless of the strands that were covered. However, the subjects that are on page one of the report card (English, French, and Math) you are required to give a separate mark for each strand. For this reason it is important as you select categories to be assessed for English, French and Math, you note the strand that category is related to. For example, “Problem Solving Related to Measurement” effects only the Measurement report grade – not the other math strands.

The grade filter disappears when categories are being selected because the same categories apply to all grades. For large projects it is likely that all categories will be addressed but for small subtasks only one or two categories will probably be assessed.

Change the Category of an Assessed Skill

Plan > Subtask Writer 1
Select the subtask.
Scroll down to the box under “Assessed Skills and Knowledge”. (You should see each skill that is to be assessed)
Under the category drop down list type in the name of a new category or select from a list of previously used categories.

Note: There are number of new features in Teacher’s Partner that relate to the use of categories. For example, it is now much easier to give a category an exact weight for determining report card marks. You can also now create category specific report rubrics (this a type of comment bank that has four different comments depending on the level of the student) .

The ministry and most boards suggest that assessment should be organized according to the skill categories such as “Knowledge”, “Problem Solving” and “Communication.” It is acceptable to say that “Knowledge” is worth 35% of the report mark, “Problem Solving” is worth 20% etc. Some teachers like to organize their assessments under categories such as “Homework”, “Projects” and “Tests”. Some view these different methods of organization as being incompatible with one another, but they don’t need to be. For example, a teacher may choose to assess “Knowledge” with tests, “Communication” with projects, and “Problem Solving” with homework. The reason for renaming the categories to Tests, Projects, and Homework is that it may make it easier for the students to identify the importance of a particular assessment.

Change the Weights of Assessed Skills

Plan > Subtask Writer 1
Select the subtask.
Scroll down to the box under “Assessed Skills and Knowledge”. (You should see each skill that is to be assessed)
To change the weight, delete the existing weight and type in a new one. (must be 0 or greater).

Note: Although all of the assessed categories have a mark (weight) associated with them, teachers can use any marking system including letter grades and performance levels.

If you give a test that has 25 marks on it and you want to enter the record the mark out 25, then enter a weight of 25. If you decide that this weight too high or too low you can later change the weight and Teacher’s Partner will convert all the marks to match the new weights. For example, to make a skill that has a weight of 10 half as important, change the weight to 5. You can only link a rubric to categories/expectations that are going to be assessed.

Add or Edit a Rubric

Plan > Subtask Writer 1
Select the subtask
Scroll down to the box under “Assessed Skills and Knowledge”. (You should see each skill that is to be assessed)
In the yellow boxes you will see the different levels. To edit the rubrics click on the “Builder” (hammer and nail) button.
Use the filters below the boxes to find the generic descriptors and then click on the text to paste them into your rubric.
Edit the rubric so that it is specific to the task.

Notes: Each rubric is linked directly to the category. You can use drop down arrows to find and select expectation text to be pasted into your rubric. The style for writing subtask rubrics is different than report rubrics. When writing report rubrics you include name substitutes (777) and pronouns like he and she. You do not use 777 or pronouns when writing subtask rubrics. There is a button in the rubric builder that allows you to view and paste previously written rubrics.

Add Subtask Instructions and other Subtask Details

Plan > Subtask Writer 1
Select a subtask
Scroll down below the “Assessed Skills and Knowledge” and “Related Skills and Knowledge” until you Subtask Details section.
Click on the “Instructions” button.
Type in your instructions for students, and then click on the spell check button.
Click on the one of the other buttons to add information about Task Overview, Groupings, Recording Devices, and Assessment and Lesson Notes.

Notes: Entering information into these boxes is optional. This information can be pasted into your Daybook later.

Print Student Worksheets

Plan > Print Tracking Sheets
Click on the Subtask
Select the Desired Options
Click on the “Student Worksheet” preview button
Click on the print button in the top menu

You may need to experiment with different options to see how the printout format changes. You may notice that when you click on the subtask, certain boxes may get checked off or on. This is because the program looks to see which features you have used (i.e. rubrics, instructions, lesson overview) and then it automatically formats the page accordingly. You can override the automatic formatting by checking and un-checking boxes manually.

If you go to “Print Tracking Sheets” from “Subtask Writer 1” or “Subtask Writer 2” the program will select the same subtask that you were working on in the previous form. However the automatic formatting does not occur. Click on highlighted subtask to complete the automatic formatting.

Print Class Tracking Sheets

Plan > Print Tracking Sheets
Click on the “Class Tracking Sheets” tab
Select a subtask
Select a class
Click on one of the preview buttons (most popular is “Single Subtask with Column Format”)

Notes: Print out these tracking sheets to record marks. When all marks have been recording on your sheet you can transfer the data to the Gradebook in Teacher’s Partner.

Print Long Range Plans

Plan > Print Long Range Plans
Select a Grade and Subject
Select a Unit only if you only want to focus on information related to a specific unit
Click on one of the many different preview buttons to see the different types of printouts

Notes: When you click some buttons you may get a message requesting a parameter value (this is a bug). Just click on OK to continue. To print out Unit details you must go to the Unit Planner, click on Unit Details and then click on the print button.

Set Your Schedule for Cycle

Plan > Day Book
Click on the button “Set Schedule”
Select the number of periods in a day
Select the number of days in a cycle
Click on each day and edit the Start Time, Name of Class, Location, and Special Notes
Select the information that you want pasted into your day plans

Even if you decide not to use Day Book in Teacher’s Partner for every day use you may want to use it when a supply teacher is needed. It is easy to generate detailed day plans with all of the specific information about your routines. Once your schedule has been entered it will be automatically pasted into your Day Book when you select the day of the cycle for each day. You can edit your schedule at any time.

Set Your Schedule for the Month

Plan > Daybook
Use the arrows buttons in step 2 to scroll to the first school day of the month
Under the “Select Day of Cycle” click on the Day that represents the first day of the cycle.
Click on the “Set Schedule for Next Day” button
To set all the days for the month keep clicking on the “Set Schedule for Next Day” button.
Skip over holidays and PD days.

Notes: The program automatically skips over Saturday and Sunday, but it does not skip over holidays or PD days. When you reach a holiday or PD day you need to skip over it manually and then start the process of selecting the next regular school day all over again.

Create and Print Day Plans

Plan > Daybook
Use the buttons under “Find Date” to advance to the appropriate date.
If not already done, select the day of the cycle
Click on a period
Select the subtask for that period.
Scroll to the right to view and edit the task overview, instructions, and lesson notes for the subtask
Click on the “Paste Subtask Lesson Parts” button to paste subtask details into your Daybook.
Repeat steps 4-7 for other periods of the day.
Preview and print day plans

Notes: To move up one day at a time, click on the advance arrow. To select other dates, click on the calendar button and then double click on the desired date. Clicking on a Subtask shows the subtask details (you may need to scroll to right to see them).