Sunday, January 20, 2013

E-mail bankruptcy

There's a lot of appeal to the idea of declaring e-mail bankruptcy.

The notion is this. When you get so many e-mails in your inbox, and you get so far behind in answering your e-mails that it seems hopeless to ever catch up, consider declaring e-mail bankruptcy.

E-mail bankruptcy is the same idea as financial bankruptcy but it's only about your e-mail obligations. You can get a fresh start. You can start your e-mail life over again.  And maybe next time you'll do better.

To declare e-mail bankruptcy, send an e-mail out to everybody on your address list. Tell them that because of unfortunate circumstances you have been forced to declare e-mail bankruptcy which means that you are asking to be forgiven for not having returned e-mails that have been sent to you in the past. You have no hope of returning all those e-mails. You need a fresh start. And your fresh start is to delete all those old e-mails and start again with an empty inbox.

When your collection of unanswered e-mails gets large enough, the fact is you have no hope of answering all of of them. The only reasonable way out is to be forgiven for the obligations. It's better than suicide, and less permanent.

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Keywords: email bankruptcy

Friday, January 18, 2013

May I change the wording on the buttons and links on my Discipline Manager?

Yes. Different schools have different names for elements of their discipline process. After school detention may be called Friday Night Reflections, extra school may be called Saturday School or Wednesday School, ISS may be called PASS, merits may be called Positive Points. We can customize Discipline Manager to your needs.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, getting started

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Does Edclick offer a reseller program or otherwise offer discounts for repeat purchases?

Not yet.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, getting started

Thursday, January 17, 2013

We have faculty and student information in a database. Can we do bulk data loading?

Yes. We can help you with bulk data loading.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, getting started

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Can we continue to use the domain name that we already have?

Yes. Hostnames are typically in the form yourschool.edclick.com. However, if you want to use your own domain name (e.g., yourschool.org), we can create a special host name for you such as dm.yourschool.org or edclick.yourschool.org. We will need to work with the organization that currently controls your domain name to link it to your new Web site.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, getting started

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Do I need an ISP to host Discipline Manager?

No, you don't. We host it for you. Hosting service is included in the price.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, getting started

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Can my Discipline Manager site have a unique look and feel?

Yes. Most customers use our standard design but if you would prefer that the appearance of Discipline Manager be consistent with your web site, we can probably accommodate that.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, getting started

Monday, January 14, 2013

How do I sign up for Discipline Manager?

We will send you a Getting Started form that lists the info we need to get you set up. We need such info as

• Faculty list
• Student list
• Customizations if you choose not to use our defaults

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, getting started

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Do you provide free customer support?

Yes, we do. We will respond to all e-mail questions within 24 hours. Contact us at support@edclick.com. You may also contact us by telephone at (972) 699-7970. 

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, service and fees

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Are software upgrades provided to me when they are developed?

Yes. Upgrades to Discipline Manager are provided as soon as they become available, free of charge. We may add premium services in the future for an additional fee.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, service and fees

Friday, January 11, 2013

Is there a set-up fee?

No. There is no set-up fee for Discipline Manager.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, service and fees

Thursday, January 10, 2013

What is included in the fee? What is not included?

Discipline Manager is a complete suite of functionality. The standard high school package includes:

• Discipline referrals
• Automatic email notifications of administrators
• Assigning consequences
• Discipline Questionnaires for guided student reflection on misbehavior outside a discipline setting
• Character Building Questionnaires for guided student reflection on character issues; often used in ISS when students finish coursework early; often used in leadership training
• Automatic notification of referring teachers so they know what and when action is taken
• Automatic roll creation for detention, extra school, ISS, OSS, AEP, restitution, loss of privilege
• Tracking whether consequences are satisfied
• Easy escalation of unsatisfied consequences
• Automatic creation of student histories, valuable in determining effective actions taken and fact-based discussions with parents, students and teachers
• IEP, BIP and other plans are available to administrators at the decision point
• Policies for specific misbehaviors are available at the decision point
• Discipline summaries and full discipline histories are available at the decision point
• Automatic notification of parents when consequences are assigned
• Customizable letter templates are defined for any situations
• Letter templates are automatically filled with details of a case for easy communication
• Student assignment tracking requests assignments from teachers and ensures they are available when a student is removed from class as with ISS
• Optional automatic assignment of consequences based on tardies and demerits
• Flexible reporting which can correlate results to subpopulations and other demographic data
• Trend reports for identifying change with time
• Pareto analysis reports for finding key trouble areas
• Merit-Demerit system for using Discipline Manager to implement a punishment-free positive discipline system
• Collects and generates discipline data for state reporting
• Fully customizable

Online manual and online tutorial movies

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, service and fees

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

What is the fee for Discipline Manager service?

Discipline Manager is available for an annual subscription. Fees vary according to the size of school. Contact us for more details. 

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, service and fees

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Does Discipline Manager allow multiple user accounts?

Yes. Discipline Manager allows you to create as many user accounts as you need and it provides a wide range of privileges to grant to users. For example, teachers are authorized to assign referrals, ISS classroom monitors are authorized to take roll and run the ISS classroom and administrators are authorized to assign consequences customize the system to meet the school's needs.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Monday, January 7, 2013

Discipline Manager is used via Web browser. Does this mean that anyone can edit my site's content?

No. Access to Discipline Manager is password-protected. Users must sign into Discipline Manager with a valid username and password to use it.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Can Discipline Manager help me run my school more efficiently?

Yes. Discipline and respect for authority is the foundation of an efficient, effective school. The primary goal of using Discipline Manager is to instill self-discipline in students, not to assign punishment. Self-discipline comes from students knowing what is expected of them and confidence that those expectations will be met.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Our student information system has a discipline component. Do we still need Discipline Manager?

Yes. Student information systems provide the critical function of collecting data required for state reporting. For discipline, for example, states typically require reporting of discipline consequences where students are removed from their normal classroom activities such as for suspension or disciplinary alternative placement. But suspension and disciplinary alternative placement is a very small part of a school's discipline process.

Discipline Manager is designed to help the school implement their discipline process, not just with satisfying state reporting requirements. The discipline process includes making behavior expectations clear, enforcing misbehaviors quickly and consistently, keeping teachers aware of assigned consequences and fulfilled consequences, keeping parents informed about discipline issues, maintaining individual student discipline histories, making essential information about a student such as behavior plans, individual education plans and others available at the point of decisionmaking, making school and district policies available at the point of decisionmaking, collecting assignments from teachers for students who will be removed from class, easy escalation of consequences for students who do not fulfill discipline consequences, and more. All of these things are essential to an effective discipline process and none are addressed by the discipline reporting function that most student information systems provide.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Can Discipline Manager do state reporting of discipline?

Yes, for some states. Discipline Manager collects the information required for state reporting and it can generate data files that can be merged with your student information system generated data files for reporting discipline. Contact us for details.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Friday, January 4, 2013

Can Discipline Manager help me manage my classroom?

Yes. Discipline Manager helps the staff build a schoolwide respect for discipline. Misbehaviors have consequences and the consequences will be followed to their conclusion. Teachers are assured that the administration backs them up in a timely and effective manner. Also, teachers get a broader look at the behavior of a student. Does this student only misbehave in my classroom or do others have similar problems?

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Thursday, January 3, 2013

What was Discipline Manager designed to do?

What was Discipline Manager designed for?

Discipline Manager was designed to make your discipline process more effective. It does so by making effective use of information about the student, his behavior, his situation and his needs.

Discipline Manager fills a gap between classroom disruptions and state reporting. It has been used to help turn around schools that were out of control. Mere state reporting cannot do that.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

What does Discipline Manager do?

Discipline Manager helps you manage the process of discipline in your school. It goes far beyond mere state required discipline reporting. Discipline Manager helps you establish an environment of accountability, in proves follow-through and makes discipline more consistent. Parents are automatically notified of discipline events and consequences. When teachers make referrals, they are automatically notified of the consequences assigned and when the consequences have been satisfied. Referrals don't get lost. Students who fail to show up for detention reliably and up with escalated consequences. When students are taken out of class as for in school suspension, requests for their assignments are sent to their teachers. If the assignments are not forthcoming, the teachers are reminded.

Discipline Manager also includes nontraditional consequences such as online questionnaires designed to make students reflect upon their misbehavior in a non-discipline setting. Students can be assigned a loss of privileges for specified lengths of time.

While Discipline Manager is used most often for punitive consequences, it also includes a merit and demerit system which can be used to implement a positive discipline system.

in further support of the discipline process, Discipline Manager makes critical information available at decision points. For example, a summary of a students recent discipline history is displayed on the page where a principal assigned to consequence. Also available on the same page, our relevant documents such as behavior improvement plans, individualized education plans and plans to accommodate disabilities. The same page can also display the school's policies toward the misbehavior that triggered the current referral.

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Keywords: FAQ: Discipline Manager, using discipline manager

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Start small

Here it is, New Year's Day. I've been meaning to get back to blogging for a while. Today seems like a good day for new beginnings.

What's been holding me back? I've been busy but probably a more significant impediment is the idea of re-committing to blogging. They say that when your goal is (or seems) too large, your amygdala (lizard brain) kicks in with a fear response...it has been called the amygdala hijack. And the fear response might be enough to make up excuses not to pursue the goal. So start small, under the radar of the lizard brain.

So I did.

Happy New Year!

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Keywords: continuous improvement