User Manual: Student Homework Planner
Welcome to Student Homework Planner for Android. This file gives information on how to setup and use Student Homework Planner.
1. Setup
A. Set-up the working week for your school. You go through a set of screens when Student Homework Planner first starts to set up the basic working week at your school.
This includes the first day of the week, the number of school days, the number of lessons per day, and break times etc.
You are given the option to add lesson start- and end- times. You can skip this, but if you enter the times, then Student Homework Planner can highlight the current lesson on the timetable automatically for you to make it quicker to find your way around the timetable.
If you need to change the working week later, choose the Settings menu, and choose Setup school week.
B. Set up your timetable. You are next asked to enter your timetable. This is your weekly timetable of each lesson: where it is taught, which class and which subject.
You can set a period to be a taught lesson, a regular meeting or free time.
When entering rooms, subjects or classes, the buttons on the right popup previously used values to make it quicker. Take care to ensure that the spellings of teachers and subjects are the same for the same class, so Student Homework Planner knows that they are linked
You can change the timetable at any time. Select Edit timetable from the menu, or from the button in the settings screen.
C. Set up holidays. Student Homework Planner allows you to set whole weeks as holiday (vacation). You can set this up initially, or set it from the menu Edit holidays. Holidays allow the app to jump over weeks when finding homework set in previous lessons. For example, if you set homework on the last day before a two week holiday, then the app will show the homework as due on the first lesson with that class on return from holiday. Also holiday weeks are shown greyed-out in the timetable display. For single days holiday, simply leave the timetable empty for those days.
2. Entering lesson plans and homework
Once the timetable is set up and saved, you will see your weekly timetable as a grid.
You can move to the next/previous week via the buttons at the top, and always can return to the current week via the This week button (arrows pointing to the centre).
The current day will be highlighted in the timetable, and if you have set lesson start- and end-times, then the current lesson (or closest) will be highlighted too.
You can click on any lesson to view that lesson, and enter notes for a lesson and any homework set in the lesson.
In the lesson page, you will see the following information:
1. This lesson date, day, location,
teacher, subject
2. A countdown of the time left in the current lesson
3. Information about the previous and next lessons with this teacher. The popup menu has a previous and next lesson button to quickly navigate there (for example, to check the lesson plan from last time to see where you got to)
4. A list of any previously-set homework that is due this lesson
5. An edit-box where you can enter lesson notes - note the free version of the app has a limited edit size (120-characters), the PRO version has a much larger edit size. The edit-box will resize larger as you type. In the PRO app, a popup undo button appears so you can undo any typing.
6. An edit-box for this lessons homework - note the free version of the app has a limited edit size (80-characters), the PRO version has a much larger edit size. Again, it will resize larger as necessary, and undo is available for the PRO version.
7. There is a button to set when the homework is due. You can choose any lesson with this teacher in the next week. If you do not choose a lesson, the app defaults the homework to be due on the next lesson, whenever that is. Note that if a holiday is between now and the due lesson, the homework jumps to the next available lesson.
The last information shows you when the next lesson with this class is, and there is a button for quickly moving there (e.g. to enter a note to remind you about something next lesson).
Any changes are automatically saved when you go back to the timetable weekly view.
3. To-do items
To-do lists: click on the to-do icon on the timetable to add to-do items. You can set as HIGH or low priority. Click on an item to mark it as done (shown struck-through). You can delete individual items, or press the button at the bottom of the screen to delete all completed items. A red exclamation mark on the to-do icon on the timetable screen indicates that incomplete to-do items exist. You can edit an existing to-do entry by long-pressing the item. Make any changes and then hit the back button to save the change.
To-do items for specific subjects/teachers. You can add to-do items for a specific subject. For example: don’t forget your book for next lesson, or return a letter given out in class etc. This is indicated on the timetable as a small to-do list icon. It will show on all lessons with that class, until the to-do task has been completed or deleted. To add a class-specific to-do item, click on the lesson, and then in the lesson information screen, click on the to-do icon. The free version of Student Homework Planner only allows one class to-do per period, whereas the PRO version allows up to ten to-do items per lesson.
4. Extra features
You can choose which folder to save/restore backups on your device.
Save and Load your settings and data to Dropbox
from the settings menu (you need a Dropbox account for this).
Swipe left and right on the timetable to quickly move to the next/previous week.
Registration and break/lunch periods can be shown/edited in the timetable. Select from the settings screen. When selected, you can add comments for each registration period.
ICONS: The icons in the timetable indicate if the lesson has outstanding homework or not. Red = homework not done. Green = the homework is done. You can set this flag with the checkbox next to the lesson plan edit area in the lesson view window.
Long-click on a lesson in the weekly timetable view to quickly view the details of that lesson, or edit the lesson, or edit the timetable for that lesson. The PRO version has a formatted display of the lesson details and plan which stays on the screen until you press the back key. It also displays a photo you have saved with the lesson plan, if you saved one, and a countdown of the time left in the lesson.
Long-click on the previous- and next-week buttons to get a list of weeks to quickly jump to a specific week
In the settings screen, choose the Change timetable font size button to adjust the size of the font in the timetable, to better make use of larger screened devices
In the settings screen, choose the Reduce
button text size or Increase button text size buttons to adjust the
size of the font on the buttons in the lesson view page
(PRO) Undo button when editing lesson plans and homework
(PRO) Click the camera icon to take a picture associated with a lesson (e.g. A shot of the board - where we got to etc.). The camera icon changes from a zero (0) to a one (1) if a picture was taken. You can view the picture and re-take the picture when you wish
(PRO) Move a lesson in the timetable. Do this from the menu. Choose the lesson to move, and which period in the timetable to move it to. This must be a FREE lesson. Note that as well as the timetable information, also all lesson plans and homework notes will be moved to the new position as well. This includes any photos taken (PRO feature) for lesson plans.
(PRO) You can remove the subject from the timetable view (unnecessary to display if you only teach one subject) - frees up more room in the timetable display. Select from the settings screen.
(PRO) Save lesson plans and homework data as a
CSV file (you can open this in Excel). Select Export as CSV from the settings
menu, then choose the start- and end- dates. The file is saved to your sd-card. If you connect your phone to a PC you can open the
file directly into Microsoft ®Excel.
Two-week timetables: When setting-up the school week, tick the two-week box. You can flip which week you are in the timetable via a small button in the bottom-right corner of the timetable screen (marked Flip). The two week timetable is wider than can fit on the screen, so drag the timetable to the right to view the second week.
4. Upgrade to PRO
You can upgrade to the PRO (paid) version of Student Homework Planner, by purchasing the Student Homework Planner PRO app here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vinster.splannerpro
Why upgrade? PRO has the following benefits:
* Increased size of lesson notes and homeworks. Lesson notes go from 120 to 9999 characters. Homeworks go from 80 to 9999 characters
* No adverts - more screen space for the app
* Save a picture with a lesson - record lesson info or homework quickly without as much typing
* Can move a lesson (and plans/homeworks set) in the timetable to another period/day
* Improved quick preview of lesson details on long-click of a lesson in the timetable (useful during a lesson)
* Top priority support / bugfixes
* New features will get added to PRO as a priority!
How to upgrade: the first time you start the PRO app, it will detect the settings from the non-PRO version,
and ask you if you want to use these. Click Yes. Alternatively, save to Dropbox
with the free version, and then load the settings in the PRO version.
PLEASE NOTE: To use Dropbox on the PRO app, save your
settings with the free app first, then uninstall the free app. Then run the PRO
app, and load the settings from Dropbox. If you don’t uninstall the free app,
Dropbox will not be able to connect to the PRO app.
5. Get help/support
Follow @teachersplanner
on Twitter for updates and support, or email Kevin.stainsby@gmail.com
6. Privacy
Student Homework Planner and Student Homework
Planner PRO do not collect any personally identifiable data. The apps collect
anonymous usage data via Google Analytics which is used to make the app better.
Student Homework Planner (the free version) also uses Google AdSense to provide clickable adverts and generate some
revenue. Users in EU countries must consent to the storing and accessing of
cookies and other information, and to the data collection, sharing, and usage
that takes place when they use Google products. If you do not consent to this,
please uninstall the app.