Parent Teacher Conferences

Administrator Guidelines

Overview

Parent Teacher Conferences by Schools-On-I-Net provides a way for the school to setup conference times or “sessions” for parents and teachers to meet by appointment. Parents see only those teachers that are connected to their children by way of a SOIN Class, without having to pick from a list of the faculty and staff.  Parents will see only available sessions that have been assigned to a teachers. SOIN Administrators can setup conferences, make changes to teacher schedules, make appointments for parents, and print reports and schedules.  There is an option for parents to tell the teacher that they are “unable to attend” the conferences as well.

CLICK HERE to download the complete Parent Teacher Conference Guidelines for Administrators.

CLICK HERE to download the editable instructions for schools to send to parents, explaining the SOIN Parent Teacher Conference on-line scheduling process.

What conference parameters are considered:

SOIN Administrators create the conference and set parameters such as date of conference (can span across incongruous dates), conference time, appointment or session duration, hall time, breaks, and dates for open scheduling by parents.  Advanced parameters include assigning sessions to teachers based on Division, Grade, Grade-Section, Alphabetical last name of family, individual teachers’ schedule.

How teachers’ schedules are created:

Teachers are assigned sessions or timeslots by the SOIN Admin when scheduling the conference.  Individual sessions may be removed from the teacher as needed. Sessions may be allotted based on grade, division or class. 

To give a Teacher a conference session, the teacher must be:

1. connected to a class that falls within the conference parameters
2. assigned a room number within the Conference module. 

Rules are as follows: 

Early Childhood and Lower School Divisions:    Homeroom, Specialty, Resource classes types are shown

Middle School and High School Divisions:   Normal, Specialty and Resource class types are shown  

Note: The SOIN Admin may exclude certain subject classes from showing in Parent Teacher Conferences. (I.E. do not show Dinim or Study Skills class teachers).
 

What kind of reports can the SOIN Admin print out:

Several types of canned reports are available, including:

• Schedules:  Room Schedules, Teacher Schedules, Family Schedules
• Unable to attend report
• Families signed up
• Teachers’  students vs. available sessions
• Teachers who have no available sessions

Important notes:

A. Conferences are scheduled PER STUDENT PER FAMILY.   For a married couple, if a one parent logs in and schedules conferences, and then the spouse logs in to schedule conferences, the second parent will see any appointments already made for the family.   For the separated parent, (if correctly setup in his/her own SOIN Family account), he or she can sign up for his/her own conference appointments.

NOTE: if the conferences are opened to parents for scheduling, and THEN, the family record in SOIN needs to be adjusted to reflect a separation or divorce, SOIN’s PTC will continue to see those parents as one unit.  If this situation arises, then please open a ticket in SOIN Issue Tracker and a representative will help you. You may want to setup the schedule and send it to us for the second parent and then remember to block those sessions from the teacher until we update the system.

B. Conferences are assigned PER CLASS PER TEACHER – A class that has two teachers will show up as two different appointments.  You will need to manipulate the class setup or create a conference class specifically to handle this case. If there are co-teachers who want to take conferences simultaneously, you will need to manipulate the class setup. 

The SOINTeam can help if you need some ideas on how to handle specific situations.   But as a general rule, it is important to verify family accounts at the beginning of school and periodically throughout the year.  We suggest giving parents a deadline to login and check their account – they can help keep the demographic information updated. Express that their help will prevent account “fixes” later. 

How do notifications work?

Enotifications are sent to the parent upon scheduling their conferences or upon changes made.  A reminder enotification is sent out two days before the conference. The enotification has the schedule of appointments.
 

What else should I know?

Parents can make, edit and cancel appointments when the system is open for scheduling (Manage Parent Dates).
Teachers get a link for “Reports’ in their account so that they can print out their own schedule of appointments.

OK, I’m ready to get started:Remember: Teachers only show up if connected to a class AND have a room number assigned.

Step 1:  Gather Conference Details

Please have ready:

• Conference Date/s

• Start Time and End Time of Conference

• Session Duration (how long does the Conference “Session” last)

• Break Start Time and End Time ( During the Break, no sessions will be available)

• School setups up conferences, including the scheduling window (time that is open for parents to schedule conferences with their teachers)

• Have rooms available for conferences

• Teacher Schedules (teacher exemptions, requests, etc.)

Step 2:  Location Setup

Enter the location (campus) and room numbers  

Step 3:  Schedule Conference

1. Create the conference
2. Conference Title (ex: Middle School Spring 2008)
3. Assign room numbers to teachers
4. Schedule breaks as needed
5. Schedule the time frame when you want parents to be able to sign up for conferences.
   (It is recommended that school allows 1-2 days for printing conference reports the day before conference begins.)

NOTE:  SOIN Admins need to be training on managing all conference parameters: Parent Dates, Parent Sessions, Teacher Sessions, Reports, Location Changes, Adding Sessions to a Teacher, Removing Sessions from a Teacher.  Please make sure all links and functions have been covered. The SOIN Team is available for assistance.

Step 4:  Schedule Verification and Testing: 

• Run reports to see available time slots/sessions for teachers.
• *Especially* check the Student vs Time Slot report.
• Verify that sessions are not overlapping.
• Test using Manage Parent Sessions link

Step 5:  Class List Verification

SOIN Classes are what determine the student and teacher relationship.  On the list of teachers to select from for conferences, parents only see teachers connected to their children through a SOIN Class.  Verify that teachers have all their classes and that the class lists are correct.  There are a number of ways to accomplish this:

1. Option1 is to print out class lists from Class Setup/Class Lists (Homeroom for Lower School, Other classes for middle and high schools) and get each teacher to sign off that the right students are in the classes.
2. Option2 use the Teacher Classes and Student Classes reports located in Class Setup module.
3. Option3 ask all teachers to check their Communications, My Classes link or Communications, Student Roster link. 

To setup a Principal’s Conference, a class must be created with principal and all students.   Note: If a parent says that a teacher is missing or the wrong teacher appears, check the class that the child belongs to and check that class’s schedule.
 

Step 6:  Letter to parents

• Sends Letter to Parents letting them know the dates that scheduling is open for parents. Template is available. 
• Some schools allow 10 days to 3 weeks scheduling time before the conference
• Conference Links only work in the SOIN Administrator User Account. 
• Requirement of the school: At least one SOIN Admin should be fully trained on managing the conference module.
• Teachers should be trained on printing their schedules and to check them during the scheduling process.