Lesson Planner for iPad manual:

New features in version 1.5

  • Color tags: mark students and their lessons with colors
  • Duplicate entire schools
  • Enter students directly, without importing from contacts
  • Much faster timetable computation

Please send bug reports and questions to: support@lessonplanner.ch

Startpage

The Startpage is where you manage the schools you're teaching at. Here you can do the following:

Add new schools to Lesson Planner

To add a new school to Lesson Planner do the following:

  • Tap the '+' button in the lower left corner and enter the school name in the following popup box.

Edit your schools

To delete, rename or copy a school do one of the following:

  • Delete: swipe the desired school to the left and select 'delete'.
  • Rename: swipe the desired school to the left and select 'rename'.
  • Duplicate: swipe the desired school to the left and select 'duplicate'.

Open a school

To open a school do one of the following:

  • Tap the name of the school to open it.
  • If you'd like to open a scecific tab directly, tap the corresponding icon on the right side of the name.

People Tab

The People Tap is where you add the students and their spare time to Lesson Planner.
To compute a timetable enter your desired teaching time and the free time frames of your students. You can see a red dot next to the student's name if you and the student have not enough overlapping spare time.

Add students to Lesson Planner

To add your students to Lesson Planner do one of the following:

  • Add students manually: tap the 'add' button above the People List and enter the student's name in the following dialog box with the keyboard.
  • Import from contacts: tap the 'import' button above the People List.

Enter your desired teaching time frame

Select 'Me' in the People List and enter your desired teaching time frames on the right side.

  • Enter new: tap and hold to enter a new time block. Drag it to the desired position and release. Adjust start / end time as shown below.
  • Delete: tap the time entry you'd like to delete. Select 'delete' in the context menu.
To adjust the start time, tap and hold the upper left circle, then drag. To adapt the end time, do the same in the lower right corner.

Enter the free time frames of the students

Select each student in the People List and do one the following:

  • Enter new: tap and hold to enter a new time block. Drag it to the desired position and release. Adjust start / end time as shown above.
  • Copy: if some students have the same schedule, you can copy their free times to the clipboard and paste it to other students: tap a free time and then 'select' in the context menu. You can extend the selection by tapping more free times. Then tap copy in the upper right corner. Select a different student in the People List an tap paste.
  • Delete: tap a free time and then 'delete' in the context menu. You can also select several free times as explained under copy and delete all together with the 'delete' button in the upper right corner.

Select the lesson duration

Choose the appropriate lesson duration for each student in the Lesson Duration Bar. In case your desired lesson duration is not visible, you can change it by tab and hold as shown below.


Tap the appropriate lesson duration for the student...

or change it by tapping and holding a lesson duration. This will open a context menu, where you can change the shown duration.

Change colors

To group or differentiate the students select the color. Also you can change the color of the lessons in the timetable tab.

You can choose a color tag for a student by tapping left to his name.

Delete students

To delete students do one of the following:

  • Press the 'edit' button above the People List. Tap the '-' button and then 'delete'.
  • Swipe the student to the left and tap 'delete'

Timetable Tab

The Timetable Tab is where you compute, edit and export the timetable for the current school. Before computing a new timetable, you have to enter the corresponding times in the People Tab.

Compute new timetable

To compute a new timetable do the following steps:

  • Tap 'compute' in the upper right corner.
  • Choose the appropriate settings in the Settings Window.
    • Select after how many students you'd like to have a break. If you don't need additional breaks select '-'
    • Choose the length of the breaks.
    • Decide if you want to search only for the best solution (the most compact one) or not. By selecting 'only search for the best solution' Lesson Planner will display only one timetable.
  • Tap 'compute' in the Settings Window. Lesson Planner will now compute the timetable and show you the progress. Depending on the complexity the computation can take quite a while.

    • The progress bars tell you the following:

    • lesson alignment: this progress bar shows you how good lessons are aligned (fewer unwanted breaks in between is better).
    • overall compactness: this progress bar shows how compact the whole timetable is (earlier ending is better).

  • Depending on your setting and free time combination Lesson Planner will compute one or more timetables. Select the best one. You can still edit it later.

tips for getting the best result:

  • Lesson Planner searches for the most compact timetables. Also it prefers to start as early as possible. In case you get unwanted breaks at the beginning of a day, reduce your available teaching time at the start of this day and compute the timetable again.
  • The more free times you enter, the longer it takes to compute a timetable.

Edit the timetable

You can move a student's lessons to a new time as long as it's inside his free time. Swap lessons by dragging one over the other. Lesson Planner will show you what's possible.

  • Change lesson times:

Tap and hold the lesson you'd like to move. (e.g. Appleseed)

Lessons you can swap will remain colored. (e.g. Appleseed can swap with Higgins, but you can not move Appleseed to Bell or Haro's time)

Move the lesson to the desired position. (e.g. change Appleseed with Higgins)
  • Change lesson color: tap the desired lesson and change the color in the context menu.

Export the timetable

To export your timetable into a new or existing calendar on your iPad do the following steps:

  • Tap 'export' in the upper right corner.
  • In the following popup window choose a start and end date and do one of the following:
    • Existing: choose the calendar you'd like to export into
    • New: scroll down and choose 'create new calendar'
  • Tap 'Ok'

Attendance List Tab

The Attendance Tab is where you keep track of your students' attendance.

Enter new attendance entry

Just tap at the desired position in the grid and select the appropriate entry in the context menu.

tip: you can change the sorting of the attendance list and how many weeks are shown in settings.

Journal Tab

The Journal Tab is where you enter tasks for students and notes for each lesson. Tasks will appear in every new journal entry until you mark them as completed.

Add new journal entry

Select the desired student and tap the 'new Journal' tab on the upper right side.

Edit journal

Select the desired student and journal entry and do one of the following:

  • New task: tap the 'new task' button and enter the task with the keyboard.
  • Delete task: tap the 'X' button on the right side of the corresponding task.
  • Mark task as completed: tap the square on the left side of the corresponding task.
  • Add notes: tap somewhere into the notes field and enter the note with the keyboard.

Delete latest journal

Select the desired student and tap the trash bin icon. Independent of the selected journal entry, it will always delete the latest journal of the selected student.